
Glass. 
Book 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



the Well-dressed Woman 



A STUDY IN THE 



Practical Application to Dress 



OF THE LAWS OF 



HEALTH, AET, AND MORALS. 

BY / 

HELEN GILBEET ECOB. 
w 

Illustrated 

SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED. 

Strive as you will to elevate woman, nevertheless the disabilities and degradation of 
her (In-ss, totfethi-r with that l.-irpe trroup of false views of the uses of her heiiitf and of 



NEW YORK : 

FOWLEE & WELLS CO., 

27 Eabt 21st Street. 

1893. 



I /ffLOy 



< opyrlght, 1808, bj 

.■'hwi.i.i: & Wi l.l. - I '■ 



Copyright, 1688, by 
Fowlkr & Wells Co 






PEEFACE. 



Ignorance is the mother of indifference. This ex- 
plains the apathy of women on the subject of dress. 
It is true that wholesale condemnation of the fol- 
lies of fashionable dress has abounded, yet scien- 
tific investigations concerning its evils are compara- 
tively recent. The results of these investigations 
are scattered through various books and journals 
inaccessible to the general reader, and are expressed 
in technical language incomprehensible to the non- 
professional mind. 

The present interest in rational dress is many- 
sided. To overcome physical frailty through 
obedience to the laws of our being ; to return to 
true standards of beauty in the female form ; to 
cultivate artistic taste and feeling in the structure 
of dress, and to free women from the degrading 

influence of ;i social environment which binds them 

3 



4 PREFACE. 

to self-adoriiment are the aims which animate this 
movement. 

It is evident that the well-dressed woman must 
observe the laws of dress. These laws relate to 
hygiene, art, and morals. They form a trinity 
mutually dependent upon each other. To observe 
the laws of art in dross and ignore the laws of 
health is impossible. To observe the laws of art 
and health and be disloyal to the morals of dress 
is equally impossible. The well-dressed woman 
must be a harmony of the laws of dress, as a paint- 
ing is a harmony of the laws of drawing and color. 
Any study of dress, therefore, is defective which 
does aot clearly define the laws of health, beauty, 
and morals. 

In preparing this volume it has not been my 
purpose to express an individual conviction on the 
subjects under consideration so much as to bring 
together the opinions of those who are recognized 
as authority in these various departments. I have 
simply " acted the part of a sieve," collecting from 
diverse sources the best information to be obtained, 
and presenting it in a direct, simple manner. This 
manual is for the help of busy women who have 
neither time nor opportunity to study the laws of 
dress for themselves. In this spirit, and with no 



PREFACE. 5 

interest in advocating particular systems, I have 
directed those who may desire such information to 
methods b} r which rational clothing may be ob- 
tained. 

The intense interest which is beginning to mani- 
fest itself on the subject of dress marks an epoch 
in the social history of woman. It indicates that 
she is ready to put away childish things and to be 
governed by reason and conscience. The move- 
ment is fraught with promise to the coming genera- 
tions and to civilization. To help in an}' wise the 
struggling minds and hearts of my countrywomen 
toward a true emancipation of body, as well as of 
intellect and soul, is the purpose of this volume. 
Helen Gilbert Ecob. 

Albany, N. Y. 



PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. 



The call for another edition of " The Well-dressed 
Woman" is gratifying because it shows that the 
public is beginning to think seriously on a subject 
which lies very close to the welfare of society. 
The volume has served the purpose for which it 
was sent forth. It has arrested thought. We hear 
of various clubs which have taken up the study 
of the manual. It is recommended as a text-book 
in schools for girls. Miss Frances Willard and Lady 
Henry Somerset "especially commend it to local 
Unions that they may read in the ' Regular Meet- 
ings." When the subject of woman's dress is thus 
made a careful study we may be sure that the begin- 
ning of its reformation is at hand. No true progress 
can be made while we present it as a fad to be taken 
up for the sake of artistic effect, but with intelligent 

thought we may hope for the triumph of reason over 

5 



6 PREFACE. 

conventional ideas. As women appreciate the noble 
purpose of life and the possibilities which are open- 
ing to tlieni, they will scorn a dress which cripples 
the body and exhausts it- powers of endurance. 

Pioneer work must always pas-- through the cruci- 
ble of criticism and persecution. This is right. We 
must prove all things before we can hold fast that 
which is good. The reformation of woman's dress is 
yet in the infantile stage. Our efforts to reconstruct 
it are largely experimental. We are patiently grop- 
ing our way toward better thiugs. Set the reform 
lias earned for itself the right to a respectful hear- 
ing. "When the most intelligent and noble women 
of this country are studying the problem because it 
bears upon the higher and truer development of the 
mind and soul, it is time that unthinking ridicule 
and hostile judgment cease. We ask this earnest 
and fair-minded consideration in behalf of the 
movement looking to a suitable costume for exer- 
cise and work which is now commanding general 
attention. Jt is obvious that woman's die-- ig 
not suited to the needs of a two-legged animal, as 
regards locomotion, cleanliness, or carrying power. 
Under the pressure of public opinion woman, "the 
weaker vessel," is compelled to do her work under 
exhausting conditions which men of powerful phy- 



PREFACE. 7 

sique would not tolerate. She asks, at length, for a 
costume which will allow the free aud healthful use 
of the body in labor and exercise. A multitude of 
women, many of whom occupy places of honor in 
the social and intellectual world, join in this appeal 
for freedom and common-sense in dress. This 
thing is not done in a corner. With this volume we 
present several costumes which have been suggest- 
ed as a basis for such a dress. These designs are 
tentative. Earnest women are studying and pray- 
ing over the elucidation of the problem. If anything 
better can be devised, the way will surely be made 
plain. 

With this edition Ave present also a number of 
designs of costumes suitable for different occasions. 
The reproductions from the works of good masters 
show how the e^e may be educated by the study of 
Art. We have no wish to cater to the demand for 
the beautiful with which the public requires that 
this reform be sugar-coated. This is to assume 
that conventional dress is beautiful, an assumption 
which every fashion-plate steadily denies. In the 
illustrations presented we have endeavored to carry 
the mind back to the laws of health, art, and morals, 
and these must issue in the beautiful. We seek the 
beautiful because it is the good and the true, but 



8 PREFACE. 

not as a bait to attract attention. We value the char- 
acter of woman too highly to believe that the reform 
can be made successful onl}- as we appeal to her 
personal vanity. If women cannot be reached 
through the moral sense, the outlook is dark and 
hopeless. Only Reason and Conscience will rescue 
our womanhood from perverted taste and vicious 
servility to the Paris fashion-monger. 

H. G. E. 
Albany, N Y. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Normal Women 9 

II. Causes op Ill-Health 24 

III. Pressure of the Corset 34 

IV. How shall Women Breathe 'i 47 

V. The Sins of the Corset Hevealed by the Au- 
topsy of the Liver 62 

VI. The Heart, the Circulation of the Blood, the 

Stomach, etc 71 

VII. Gynecology 81 

VIII. The Pedigree of the Corset 95 

IX. Unconscious Suicide 120 

X. Practical Suggestions 129 

XI. Hygiene and Dress of the Feet 151 

XII. Physical Devklofment 160 

XIII. Beauty of Form 181 

XIV. Grace of Motion 196 

XV. The Principles of Art applied to Dress 206 

XVI. Moral Significance ok Dkkss ... 227 

7 



THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 



CHAPTER I. 

NORMAL WOMAN. 

"So rnayest thou live, till like ripe fruit thou drop 
Into thy mother's lap ; or be with ease gathered, 
Not harshly plucked : for death mature." — Milton. 

"The ideal life, the life of full completions, haunts us all. 
We feel the tiling we ought to be beating beneath the thing 
we are." — Phil lips Brooks. 

Students of social science are carefully studying 
the conditions which lead to race elevation and race 
degeneracy. They observe that " in nations 
which have ceased to be the earliest signs of decay 
were those that betoken a loss of physical vigor." 
Health, then, is not only a matter of individual 
comfort, but a condition indispensable to national 
prosperity. In a still higher sense, health is closely 



10 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

involved in ethical problems. Hygienic living is 
moral living. This is a fact abundantly recognized 
in the science of morals. 

The complaint of physical deterioration is an old 
story. It is the lamentation of ancient as well as 
modern civilization. Gross evils which lead to it 
have always been more or less under the restrain! 
of law, yet little systematic effort has been made to 
restore the lost vigor. AVe live in our ideals, and 
until the ideal of health as the birthright of the 
human race is fully established, nothing radical 
will be done toward a physical reformation. 

Whatever theory of creation we may hold, we 
must believe that in the mind of the Creator was a 
pure and perfect ideal. Visions of the life of full 
completions have always haunted the human heart, 
tilling us with blind longings for the ideal strength 
and beauty. 

Our earliest health records are found in the book 
of Genesis. The age of the patriarchs is repre- 
sented as one of strength and longevity. There 
were giants in those days. Death came, not as the 
end of violent or lingering disease, but as the con- 
summation of a well-rounded process of nature. 
They "fell on sleep" and were "gathered to their 
fathers." 



NORMAL WOMAN. 11 

Whether we accept the Bible narrative verbally 
or pictorially, we may draw the conclusion that 
threescore and ten is not the normal period for 
human existence. It is quite remarkable that the 
latest researches of physiologists coincide with the 
Mosaic statements as to the average duration of 
life. These calculations are based on the duration 
of life in animals, which is five times the period 
necessary for reaching mature development. This 
rule applied to human life, and allowing the period 
of adolescence to be twenty years, would make the 
natural life of man one hundred years. This theory 
is accredited by the history of primitive people 
whose normal condition is one of muscular vigor. 
'•Disease is wholly abnormal, and premature death 
only the consequence of wounds or protracted fam- 
ine." 

Much scepticism exists among those who look at 
the subject superficially as to the " hygienic savages, 
and their immunity from disease." We see them, 
not as the children of nature, but with the vices of. 
civilization added to the vices of savagery. The 
testimony from those whose observation has been 
most careful establishes the law that simplicity 
and morality of life bring exemption from the 
diseases of the flesh. This is true of the American 



12 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

Indians. They had, when discovered by the whites, 
a religion crude but operative. The Jesuit Fathers, 
whose intercourse with them was extensive, assert 
that "they were wholly free from man}* of the most 
annoying and painful and lingering maladies visited 
upon civilized men." Other authorities say : "One 
does not sec among them the deformed from birth ; 
they are not subject to gout or gravel, t<» apoplexy 
or sudden death ; and perhaps they may not have 
knowledge of the small-pox, the scurvy, the measles, 
and most of the other epidemic diseases, except 
through intercourse with Europeans." Scrofula 
and consumption arc indigenous to the va] race, 
but modern dis.-ascs are another item in the long 
account between the Indian and his pale neighbor. 
Emerson, gathering his information from reliable 
history, thus alludes to the American Indians: 
"Their physical powers, as our fathers found them, 
and before yet the English alcohol had proved 
more fatal to them than the English sword, aston- 
ished the white men. Their sight was so excellent 
that, standing on the sea-shore, they often told of 
the corning of a ship at sea sooner by one hour 
than any Englishman that stood by on purpose to 
look out. Roger Williams affirms that he has 
known them to run between eighty and a hundred 



NORMAL WOMAN. 13 

miles in a summer day and back again within two 
days. A little pounded parched corn or hoe-cake 
sufficed them on the march. To his bodily perfec- 
tion the wild man added some noble traits of 
character." 

It is said of a Bengalese tribe, the Oswals of 
Marwar : " While cholera rages on all sides of 
them, not one has ever taken the disease, much 
less succumbed to it; and they attribute their im- 
munity to their sanitary rules. According to the 
precepts of their religion, they never touch animal 
food or spirituous liquors ; they dine early, and sup 
on milk and fruit." 

Mr. TV. T. Hornaday writes concerning the Dyaks 
of Borneo, who, without having any semblance of 
religion, are " the most moral people under the 
sun:" "The Dyaks are entirely free from the long 
list of unmentionable male and female diseases 
which appear to have been developed by the human 
race only at its highest stage of civilization and re- 
tinement. ... I must leave it to the medical faculty 
to tell us why those blessed savages are free from 
consumption, heart disease, paralysis, cancer, tu- 
mor, scarlet fever, whooping-cough, diphtheria, 
meningitis, rheumatism, Bright's disease, neuralgia, 
pneumonia, and even cramp colic. The reasons why 



14 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

they are free from dyspepsia, insomnia, headache; 
nervous exhaustion, loss of appetite, and gout are 
apparent to every one, I am sure : they are strictly 
temperate in all tilings— in eating, drinking, work- 
ing, and sleeping; eat only what is good for them, 
and make fools of themselves in nothing." 

These facts do not contradict statistics which 
prove that there has been a steady increase in the 
duration of human life, coincident with the progress 
of our civilization. During the last three hundred 
years there has been an increase of one hundred 
per cent in the average term of life. Arbitration 
lias supplanted the battle-field. Pestilence, plague, 
and scurvy, which formerly carried oft' their thou- 
sands, are not known under our improved sanitary 
conditions; tin- discovery of vaccine prevents the 
scourge of small-pox; the practice of medicine is 
reduced to a science ; the building of hospitals and 
the attention given to nursing greatly prolongs life ; 
the invention of surgical instruments and skill in 
their use is another advance in this direction. 
True civilization always leads to physical, mental, 
and spiritual vigor, and. in so far as we have at- 
tained it, life is prolonged. It is false civilization 
which brings the refinements of disease. Our 
civilization is not perfect in every direction. While 




FRONT OF TEA-GOWX : AN ADAPTATION OF GttEEK DRAPERY, 



NORMAL WOMAN. 15 

in many respects there is gain, in others there is no 
progress, or perhaps even retrogression. 

In the disastrous consequences which have come 
upon the race through the enervating influences of 
civilization, women have suffered more than men. 
Physicians are earnestly considering the "not-to- 
be-disputed fact that American women are growing 
into more and more of invalidism with every year." 
They point out not only the physical but the moral 
evils which threaten the human race in the devital- 
ized condition of its motherhood. Invalidism or 
semi-invalidism is the rule. Even a condition of 
passive health, or the absence of active disease, is 
seldom seen. Health in its highest sense, which 
signifies exuberance of spirit and both vital and 
moral energy, is almost unknown. The decline 
from strength to weakness has been so gradual 
that we have been hardly conscious of the process, 
and weakness is accepted as a legitimate condition. 
To assert that this state of invalidism is preor- 
dained for the female race is an impeachment of 
Divine justice. We are forced to the belief that it 
is the result of false principles and methods of liv- 
ing. 

In considering the subject of woman's health 
it is not necessary that ;i comparison of the relative 



16 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

•strength of man and woman be made. There are 
not sufficient data to formulate an absolute hypoth 
am It „ only necessary to show that woman 
with man, was ordained to a pure and vigorous life 
Dr.Dio lewis says that "a first and iudispe* 

sable step in the restoration of w au to physical 

vigor is to show that in her normal state she is , 
healthy vital being. The popular uotiou that the 
Hi-health „f our women is natural must be over 
°ome. ' Dr. Lewis has gathered much valuable 
evidence to support his theory. He says : •• Amon H 

ourem%rauts of the rougher sort w en are quite 

*> tough as the meu aud work hard more days in 

«>e month. For thirty years, h tiug mission- 

"''- -.1 travellers who have visited Asia aud 

:"" Ca f the A "-" f-diaus, I have persis- 

tently asked about the health of womeu. j„ no 
mstauce was I told that women are in worse health 
l«.n meu; while it was sometimes stated that the 
health of womeu is better, because of various evil 
aabits among men." 

All investigations among savage tribes, where 
->men are engaged in active out-of-door life, .show 
that her strength aud endurance are equal to that 
of man. Usually the drudgery and hard work 
come upon her. 



NORMAL WOMAN. 17 

Dr. 0. G. Given, physician to the Indian school 
at Carlisle, says : " The men, as a rule, are not as 
well developed, physically, as the women, and are 
the drones of the Indian camp, while the women 
are the working bees." The American squaws are 
said to be " second only to the ponies in the size of 
their loads and in the distance they can carry 
them." 

Dr. Kellogg says : " Among savage tribes the 
women do most of the hard work. The Mexican 
woman cultivates the ground, cares for the house- 
hold, cooks the meals, and makes the clothing for 
her lazy lord, rears the children, and, when moving- 
day comes, trudges off with all her household goods 
upon her shoulders, and the younger members of 
her family on top of all. Stanley says that the 
strongest and most enduring porters he found in 
Africa were women. In Germany, the peasant 
woman toils beside her husband in laborious em- 
ployments, and appears to be as healthy as though 
she were a man. In France I found it a common 
thing to see a line of men digging a trench for a 
water-pipe, and a woman at the head of the line 
breaking ground." 

" The body-guard of the King of Dahomey is 
composed entirely of women, forming a regiment 



18 THE IV 'ELL DRESSED WOMAN. 

from 1,200 to 2,500 strong. They are more mas- 
culine in appearance than the male soldiers, are 
tall and muscular, and possessed of unflinching 
courage. They are the best fighters in the Daho- 
man army, the nun being comparatively worthless." 
Professor A. C. Cowperthwait makes the follow- 
ing observations: "The fact that the female is 
physically inferior to the male is not due so much 
to her natural organization as to the fact that the 
mode of life which modern society forces upon her 
is unnatural, ami begets physical degeneration. It 
is only when the deteriorating influence of refined 
society begins to operate that we find the physical 
organization of the female depreciating, and her 
powers of endurance, as well as her capacity for 
resisting disease, becoming inferior to those of the 
,„ale." Such observations justify the conclusion of 
Dr. Kellogg: "1 can see no reason why a well- 
developed woman may not equal in endurance a 
man of the same size ami development." 

How far we have departed from the ideal of a 
perfect woman nobly planned is self-evident. 
Women are designated as the weaker sex. They 
are compared to the tender, clinging vine, depend- 
ing for strength on the masculine oak. The ele- 
ments in nature which suggest strength— the sea, 



NORMAL WOMAN. 19 

the sun, the wind — are poetically expressed in the 
masculine gender. The chivalry of the feudal ages 
and the gallant deference of the present day are 
humiliating tributes of society to the weakness of 
women. They are the mock homage of power to 
helplessness. Woman is regarded, and regards 
herself, as a being of feeble physical power, pre- 
ordained to hysterics, tears, and nervous prostra- 
tion. She rarely attempts an}^ work which involves 
endurance or an outlay of muscle. She has ac- 
cepted with patient resignation the enervated life 
to which she believes herself called. Vice grows 
by that which it feeds upon, and at length woman 
has actually learned to glory in the shame of her 
physical degeneracy. Tears, which are a disgrace 
on the cheek of man, are her refuge and weapon. 
The slim, tapering finger which tells of polished 
idleness, flabby muscles, the dainty form and deli- 
cate complexion, are objects of admiration. Why 
should a powerful physique in man be universally 
admired, and the small, insignificant physique of a 
woman be dubbed by the words piquant, petite, 
dainty, and the like? A woman has so far for- 
gotten the ideal for her sex as to say even of the 
Character of woman, "The female mind has a radi- 
cal weakness which is often also its peculiar 



20 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

charm." Alas for a people whose power lies in 
weakness ! 

"What causes have been at work in the dwarfing 
of womanhood? Scientists explain the varieties in 
living organism by the influence of environment. 
Development is progressive or retrogressive accord- 
ing to the nature of the surroundings. Environ- 
ment gives to the working woman the powerful arm 
and the broad waist girth. It gives to the average 
Anglo-Saxon the puny arm and the fragile waist. 
The two classes differ as widely as the dray horse 
and the racer. 

Environment is the cause of much which we 
deplore in the character of woman. Her virtues 
and vices are of the passive order. There is nothing 
in sex which makes a soul cowardly, emotional, art- 
ful, dissembling, untruthful, irresponsible, untrust- 
worthy, capricious, or fretful. These qualities, by 
which women are characterized and often satirized, 
are largely the result of. physical weakness and in- 
feriority. A man conscious that he has not 
strength for self-defence might be a coward. A 
man of weak body might be emotional. A man 
dependent on others for the means of existence 
might be artful and dissembling. A man not in- 
trusted with large affairs might be irresponsible. 



NORMAL WOMAN. 21 

A man not educated to regular employment might 
be capricious. A man confined to petty details, 
without the exhilaration of out-of-door life might 
become fretful. 

This is denominated Woman's Age. Miss Wil- 
lard says concerning it : " Of all the discoveries of 
this century the most wonderful is this — woman 
has discovered herself." This discovery is in the 
direction of educational and social advantages. 
The responsibility involved in these advantages 
demands higher living in every department. In 
the discovery of herself woman must learn that a 
life of intellectual and moral equality demands 
physical equality. For not only does intellectual 
and moral power depend upon the physical, but 
these higher gifts are of little value in their appli- 
cation to practical life without a body to sustain 
and execute. Emancipators of women have com- 
menced in the wrong way. Before admitting girls 
to the curriculum of the college they should be 
admitted to the ball-ground, tennis-court, and 
gymnasium. A recent novel holds up to pity a 
Girton girl who was made " Third Classic " at 
Cambridge : " Oh, cruel century that has put such 
a strain upon a growing woman." There is much 
truth in this view of the higher education of women. 



22 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

Young girls have not the physical stamina to en- 
dure the hard work, vicious excitement, and the 
competition which form a part of college life. Com- 
paratively few attempt it. Those who do an; car- 
ried in the arduous struggle chiefly by nerve and 
will power. This expenditure of vital force is so 
much withdrawn from the processes of nutrition 
and assimilation. It reacts on the mind as well as 
the body. On the l>asis of a good physique the 
coining woman will have an intellectual and moral 
equipment widely differing from the present type. 
Excessive sensibility will be held in equilibrium, 
not by the effort of the will, but by the counter- 
balance of a substantial physical organism. Ex- 
perience shows that "weak, shaky, hysterica] 
nerves accompany soft, flabby muscles." When 
the higher education of women begins with the 
physical, nervousness and hysteria will be despised 
by them as by men, and unless it begins here the 
coming generations will show still greater lack of 
nerve equilibrium. 

A body so healthy as to beget a sweet temper ; 
not subject to headaches and nervous prostration ; 
not exhausted by slight exertion ; a nervous sys- 
tem not rasped by the petty frictions of every-day 
life ; a physical vigor which shall bequeath to 




An example of Gown which has no division between skirt and waist. 



NORMAL WOMAN. 23 

coming generations a heritage of acquired health 
and character ; all these ought not to be the traits 
of the exceptionally endowed woman, but the char- 
acteristics of every woman. The circle of feminine 
graces must be enlarged until it includes courage, 
self-reliance, self-control, truth of being, spiritual 
freedom, graces which we are accustomed to con- 
sider as belonging to noble manhood. There is no 
sex in soul. The graces which dignify manhood 
will also dignify womanhood. The graces which 
ennoble womanhood will also ennoble manhood. 

Since physical weakness handicaps woman's 
activities, bars the way to higher education and 
hinders the development of many noble traits of 
character, it follows that an important step in the 
attainment of true womanhood lies in the direction 
of physical reformation. 



CHAPTEK II. 

CAUSES OF ILL-HEALTH. 

" God never meant to give any one pain. He made His laws, 
and they are wholesome and perfect and true, and if we dis- 
obey them we suffer the consequences." —Annu Payson Call. 

" ( >ui- deeds still travel with us from afar. 

And what we have been makes us what we are." 

There is much truth in the saying of Dr. John- 
son, "Every sick man is a rascal." The invari- 
ableness with which sickness follows transgression 
shows that disease is not an arbitrary infliction of 
Providence, but is the result of the simple, univer- 
sal law of cause and effect. " Pain is the inter- 
preter of wrong — God's moral sentence felt, beheld, 
everywhere present, the frown of His abhorrence 
to wrong, the pungent witness of our guiltiness." 
In this great law that suffering follows transgres- 
sion, the innocent often suffer for the guilty. The 
destiny of the present generation hangs on the 

right or wrong doing of the generations which are 

24 



CAUSES OF ILL-HEALTH. 25 

gone. The Jews of old believed that disease was 
a vengeance of Heaven descending on those who 
were guilt} r of heinous sin. They asked of Christ, 
" Who did sin, this man or his parents, that he 
was born blind?" Christ's answer rebuked the 
crude conception. There had been no specific sin 
either on the part of the blind man or of his par- 
ents. It did not contradict the general law, taught 
throughout the Scriptures and realized in the expe- 
rience of the individual and nation, that the sins of 
the fathers are visited upon the children until the 
third and fourth generation. This law of heredity 
was ordained for righteousness, and is the highest 
incentive to good living. It is the continuous 
choice of evil which makes it a savor of death 
unto death instead of life unto life. 

The universal ill-health of civilized woman sug- 
gests that something has been and is wrong in her 
mode of life. The comforts, education, and mo- 
lality of civilization ought to bring added strength 
and power. The failure must lie in some external 
cause, which may be removed by external measures. 
It is necessary that this weakness be traced back 
to its origin, for "only by comprehending the his- 
toric growth of an organic defect are we able to 
prescribe the best remedies. Such deformities are 



26 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

often symptoms of deeper evils." In removing the 
cause we shall not in one generation return to the 
heights of physical integrity whence we are fallen. 
Every advance will make the way easier for suc- 
ceeding generations, and the law of heredity will 
break in blessings on the thousands who come 
after us. 

Among the conditions which have produced the 
ill-health of women, physicians enumerate : 

Improper ventilation. 

Improper food. 

Lack of fresh air and sunshine. 

Lack of exercise. 

Over-study and mental strain. 

Excessive nervous development. 

Improprieties of dress. 

It is the purpose of this work to show the disa- 
bilities which come through errors of dress. 

Organic disease and various enervating condi- 
tions stand related to irrational dress as effect to 
cause ; lack of fresh air, lack of sunshine and exer- 
cise and excessive nervous development are largely 
the result of its impediments and restrictions. Dr. 
Dio Lewis gives the following classification of 
errors in dress : 

" 1st. The corset, which reduces the waist from 



CAUSES OF ILL-HEALTH. 27 

three to fifteen inches, and pushes the organs with- 
in downward. 

" 2d. Unequal distribution. While her chest and 
hips are often overloaded, her arms and legs are so 
thinly clad that their imperfect circulation compels 
congestion of the trunk and head. 

" 3d. Long, heavy skirts, which drag upon the 
body, and impede the movement of the legs. 

" 4th. Tight shoes, which arrest circulation, and 
make walking difficult. High heels, which increase 
the difficulties in walking, and so change the centre 
of gravity in the body as to produce dislocations 
in the pelvic viscera. 1 ' 

Minor errors are, tight sleeves and garters, which 
interrupt the circulation of the blood ; the bustle, 
which presses on the solar plexus and interferes 
with the equilibrium of the body ; veils, which pro- 
duce various diseases of the eye. Of these evils 
the most serious are those occasioned by the cor- 
set. The statistics of the corset makers and sellers 
of London show that the average size of the female 
waist has decreased during the last twenty-five 
years by two inches. The observation of corset 
makers is as follows - "Fashionable ladies and 
thousands who imitate them purchase corsets 
which are from three to ten inches smaller than 



28 THE WELL DRESSED WOMAN. 

their waists, and then lace them so as to reduce 
their waist from two to eight inches." More than 
one corset maker has placed the average higher 
than these figures. 

A physician says: "Woman by her injurious 
st}le of dress is doing as much to destroy the race 
as is man by alcoholism." Another physician, Dr. 
Ellis, says: "The practice of light lacing has done. 
more within the last century toward the physical 
deterioration of civilized man than has war, pesti- 
lence, ;i nd famine combined." Dr. Kitchen, of 
New York, says : "This appliance kills slowly, and, 
to the unlearned, imperceptibly ; nevertheless the 
corsel on a child is a slow murder of the child, and, 
if she be of a phthisical or consumptive tendency, 
it is not so very slow murder either. . . . Every 
woman who has grown up in a corset, no matter 
how loosely worn, is deformed." 

Miss Frances Willard says : "But woman's ever- 
lasting befrilled, bedizened, and bedraggled style 
of dress is to-day doing more harm to children 
unborn, horn and dying, than all other causes that 
compel public attention. "With ligatured lungs and 
liver as our past inheritance and present slavery, 
the wonder is that such small heads can carry all 
we know ! Niggardly waists and niggardly brains 




This is the most Bimple form 
datura is m princess gown, am 
effect may be simple or ornate a< 



if house-dree 
the draper) 
iording totn 



i which 
falls r 



'e can offer. The foun- 
in the shoulders. The 
;ind decoration 



i 



CAUSES OF ILL-HEALTH. 29 

go together. The emancipation of one will always 
keep pace with the other ; a ligature around the 
vital organs at the smallest diameter of the woman- 
ly figure means an impoverished blood supply in 
the brain, and may explain why women scream 
when they see a mouse, and why they are so terri- 
bly afraid of a term which should be their glory, 
as it is that of their brothers, viz., strong-minded." 

Dr. T. Gaillard Thomas says that improprieties 
of dress are one of the factors which depreciate 
woman's powers of endurance and capacity for re- 
sisting disease. He points out the various organic 
diseases which result from the strictures of dress 
and the exposure which is entailed by the inade- 
quate clothing of the lower extremities. 

Dr. Emmet says : "At the very dawn of woman- 
hood the young girl begins to live an artificial life 
utterly inconsistent with a normal development. 
The 'girl of the period' is made a woman before 
her time by associating too much with her elders, 
and in diet, dress, habits, and tastes she becomes, 
at an early age, but a reflection of her older sisters. 
No- bloom is often as transient as that of a hot- 
house plant where the flower has been forced by- 
cultivation to an excessive development, by stunt- 
ing the growth of branches and limiting the spread 



30 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

of its roots. A girl scarcely enters her teens be- 
fore custom requires a change in her mode oi 
dress ; her shoulder-straps and buttons are given 
up for a number of strings about her waist, and 
the additional weight of an increased length of 
skirt is added. She is unable to take the proper 
kind or necessary amount of exercise, even if she 
were not taught that it would be unladylike. Her 
waist is drawn into a shape little adapted to accom- 
modate the organs placed there, and, as the ab- 
dominal and spinal muscles are seldom brought 
into play, they become atrophied." Dr. Emmet 
enumerates the evils which result from this pres- 
sure and the fact that men would be unable to en- 
dure the exposure of out-of-door life with clothing 
so inadequate as that of women. 

The defects in the physical structure of woman, 
the aggravating cans.- and the remedy to be ap- 
plied, are pointed out by Prof. D. A. Sargent, of 
Harvard College, in Scribner's Magazine, February, 
1889 : " From an anatomical point of view the 
tissues of a woman do not differ materially from 
the tissues of a man. The hones, muscles, arteries, 
and nerves are similarly constituted, and are gov- 
erned by the same laws in their development. So, 
also, are the heart, lungs, stomach, and brain. An}'- 



CAUSES OF ILL-HEALTH. 31 

thing that will impair the function of an organ in 
one sex will certainly interfere with its action in 
the other. If you put a tight bandage around the 
waist of a man the physiological functions of the 
abdominal and thoracic organs are for the time 
impaired, and the man is unable to make more 
than two-thirds of the mental and physical exertion 
of which he is capable. When we reflect that 
woman has constricted her body for centuries, we 
believe that to this fashion alone is due much of 
her failure to realize her best opportunities for de- 
velopment and through natural heritage to advance 
the mental and physical progress of the race. We 
are the more firmly convinced of this fact from the 
rapid advancement that women make in health, 
strength, and physical improvement under favorable 
circumstances. This would seem to indicate that 
their bodies had been held in arrears and were 
pining for freedom of movement and exercise. . . . 
To woman's mode of dress and to the many con- 
straints to which she has been subjected for cen- 
turies must we look for the constant factors that 
have tended to retard her development. The most 
powerful agents in giving shape to the bony frame- 
work and accelerating its growth and development 
ore the muscles that are attached to it. Muscles 



32 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

grow large and vigorous from use, and from disuse 
become weak, flabby, and relaxed. If the muscles 
are inactive the nutrition of the bone to which they 
are connected will be impaired. Put a restriction 
around the waist of a boy or girl so that the arms 
cannot be raised above the head, or issue an edict 
that the legs shall never be raised above a certain 
angle, and you will as certainly retard the growth 
and the development of your boy and girl as you 
would the limbs of a tree similarly interfered with. 
Remove the restriction from the waist of the boy 
and place still another around the legs of the girl, 
merely to remind her that she is a girl, and in a 
vear or two 3*011 will rind a difference in their de- 
velopment. The amis and legs of the boy will be 
stronger and longer, and the muscles of his chest, 
shoulders and back increased in size from frequent 
practice in rowing, ball-playing, running, jumping, 
and such general gymnastics as boys indulge in. 
If the girl were allowed to enjoy the same privi- 
leges she would realize the same physical advan- 
tages to just such an extent as her clothes would 
render it possible for nature to work upon her 
body. On the other hand, through a too rigid re- 
gard for the proprieties that must be observed, just 
to remind the girl of her sex, the young lady will 



CAUSES OF ILL-HEALTH. 33 

probably not touch a ball, or row, run, swim, or 
enter the gymnasium. As a consequence she will 
probably not enjoy the physical and mental ad- 
vantages of these invigorating exercises, but will 
have relatively shortened limbs, a weak back, 
drooping head, flat chest, and all the mental and 
nervous characteristics of a girl wanting a good 
physical tone." 

The foregoing statements have not the weight 
of statistical demonstration. They are, however, 
valuable as the consensus of opinion of men whose 
great experience gives practical knowledge. Dr. 
Thomas and Dr. Emmet are foremost in the prac- 
tice of gynecology in this country, and Dr. Sargent 
is a high authority on physical development. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE PRESSURE OF THE CORSET. 
••Facts are stubborn things."— Gil Bias. 

For centuries past physicians and moralists have 
condemned woman's dress in general terms, yet 
accurate investigations as to the nature and extent 
of its injury are comparatively recent. The phy- 
sician of to-day is able to speedily put every 
hypothesis to the test of demonstration. 

Dr. Robert L. Dickinson of Brooklyn lias made 
special and detailed investigation concerning the 
amount of pressure exerted by the corset, the dis- 
tribution of the pressure, and the resulting displace- 
ments. We must have indisputable facts regarding 
the pressure of the corset, because the sensations 
of the wearer are not trustworthy. A pressure 
which distresses one woman is not felt by another. 

Dr. Dickinson ascertained the pressure of the 
corset by the use of the manometer. Briefly de- 

34 



THE PRESSURE OF THE CORSET. 35 

scribed, the manometer is a cut glass tube, filled 
with mercury, to which a scale is attached. A bag 
is connected with the glass tube by means of in- 
elastic tubing filled with water. In ascertaining 
the pressure of the corset the instrument is so held 
that the bag and the tops of the water columns are 
on the same level ; the corset is closed and the 
pressure is indicated by the rise of the mercury as 
registered on the sliding scale of the tube. The 
pressure of the corset on each square inch is found 
by shifting the bag about under the corset. The 
sum of the pressure in various areas gives the total 
amount. The least pressure which Dr. Dickinson 
has estimated from a corset is 21 pounds ; the 
greatest pressure he has found is 88 pounds. The 
pressure of a loose corset is about 35 pounds. 

It would be difficult to find a woman strong- 
enough to lift, even for a moment, a weight of 88 
pounds. A sack of flour weighs 25 pounds — 10 
pounds less than the pressure of the loosest corset. 
How many women can carry ;i sack of flour? Yet 
here we have ;i constant pressure upon the vital 
organs of a weight which cannot be borne by the 
arms. 

Dr. Dickinson observes that the thoracic cavity 
suffers less diminution in size and alteration ,in 



36 



THE WELLDRE88ED WOMAN. 




Fig. 1.— The heavy outline is the tracing of the corseted woman; the light, 
the same without corsets. 



THE PRESSURE OF THE CORSET 



37 




Fin. 2.— The heavy outline is the tracing of the corseted woman; the light, 
the same without corsets. 



38 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

shape from corset-wearing than the abdominal, for 
the reason that the thoracic organs may readily ac- 
commodate themselves to a pressure which simply 
squeezes out some residual air, while the abdomi- 
nal viscera must be displaced. 








Fig. 3.- Anterior view of thorax in the natural form. 

Dr. Dickinson's sketches showing the changes in 
contour of the thorax and abdomen were made by 
accurately ascertaining the normal and corset out- 
line, in the same subject, by blackboard tracings 



THE PRESSURE OF THE CORSET. 



39 



or shadows thrown on manilla paper (Figs. 1 and 
2). 

The change in the bony structure of the thorax 
is shown by Dr. Trail's illustration (Figs. 3 and 4). 
The floating ribs, which in the unrestricted body 




Fro. 4.— Anterior view of thorax in the corseted figure. 



Bpread widely apart, are in the compressed waist 
squeezed inward and downward, until they nearly 
meet in the centre. 

By the pressure of the corset the shoulders arc 



40 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

raised, the upper lobes are forced to do the breath- 
ing, the five upper ribs are raised aud the inter- 
spaces widened. This broadening above and 
constricting below Dr. Dickinson illustrates by 
Figs. 5 and 6. The expansive power of the lungs 
is reduced by this perversion about one fifth. 




Figs. 5 and 6— The shape of the cavity when the corsets are tight; the same 
without corsets. 

The change in the shape of the abdominal cavity 
is shown in Figs. 7 and 8. Dr. Dickinson calls 
especial attention to the close approximation of the 
belly-wall to the spinal column and to the bulging 
of the stomach (Fig. 7). " Without the corset the 



THE PRESSURE OF THE CORSET. 



4] 



breasts project beyond the abdomen, . . . whereas 
when the corset has raised the bust and crowded 
the abdomen down and out the supra-pubic wall 
becomes the most projecting part of the profile." 

Dr. Dickinson shows that the big stomach which 
afflicts the stout, corseted woman is the result of 




pressure on the abdominal wall. The adipose 
tissue is thinned under the region constricted, and 
the fat accumulates below the umbilicus. That 
this is not normal is proved by the fact that, in 



42 



THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 



men, the fatty layer is usually thicker above thau 
below the umbilicus. The same is true of women 
iu good physical condition. Thus "the woman 
who abhors a stomach yet adopts the most effective 
way of cultivating one. . . . That the compression 
acts on muscle as well as fat is clear when we call 




Fig. 9.— The effect of bending forward, when seated, with and without 
corsets. 



to mind the contrast between the hard abdominal 
parietes of the average man and the lax belly of 
most women. Engel reports cases in which the 
peristaltic movements could be watched through 
walls thinned from tight lacing. Of course, disuse 



THE PBESSURE OF THE CORSET. 43 

and the less need of constantly balancing the body 
has much to do with the atrophy of the abdominal 




Fio. 10.— The heavy outline with corsets, the thin without corsets. 

muscles of the female." Shroeder and others at- 
tribute to these muscles the expulsive power in 
childbirth. "If this theory is correct, the necessity 



44 



THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 



for the use of forceps in a large number of cases 
is due to corset- wearing." 




Fig. 11. 
Contour of natural waist. 




Fig. 12. 
Contour of corseted figure. 




Fig. 13.— The natural shape of the spine. 

Figs. 9 and 10 show how the pressure of the 
corset on the abdomen is increased when the body 




M'^oWv, 



DRESS FOB SCHOOL-GIRL, WITH VARIATIONS F"OH THE NECK. 

The >tnden1 will observe that the round finish of the neck is very generally 
-c(i by artists. 



THE PRESSURE OF THE CORSET. 



45 



is bent forward, as is necessary iu many sedentary 
occupations. "The man bending forward relaxes 
his abdominal walls and enormously lowers his 
intra-abdominal pressure by so doing, but the 
corseted female who writes or sews produces just 




Fig. 14.— The spine of the corset wearer. 

the opposite effect. In some cases the pressure 
over the navel is about double that in the erect 
position, notwithstanding the abdominal relaxation. 
Fig. 11, by Dr. O. E. Stillman of Albany, is a 
sketch of the natural belt line. It was made by 
can IU I measurement (if the waist uittli of a laboring 



46 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

woman who had never worn corsets. It should 
be contrasted with the stove-pipe waist-line of a 
corset-wearer (Fig. 12). 

Fig. 14, by Dr. Trail, show changes in the 
shape of the spine induced by corset pressure. 
Dr. Trail says on the subject : " Spinal distortion 
is one of the ordinary consequences of lacing. No 
one who laces habitually can have a straight or 
strong back. The muscles being unbalanced be- 
come flabby <>r contracted, unable to support the 
trunk of the body erect, and a curvature, usually 
a double curvature, of the spine is the conse- 
quence." 

Reference. The Corset : Questions of Pressure and Displace- 
ment. By Robert L. Dickinson, New York Medical Journal, 
November 5, 1887. 



CHAPTER IY. 

HOW SHALL WOMAN BREATHE? 

" Girls kill the breath with corsets that squeeze the dia- 
gram. Girls can't run or holler like boys because their 
diagram is squeezed too much. If I was a girl I'd rather be a 
boy, so I can run and holler and have a good big diagram." 

— Boy's Composition. 

The fact that a notable difference exists between 
the method of breathing in man and woman has 
been noted since the time of Boerhaave. The 
former breathes chiefly with the lower portion of 
the chest, which is called the diaphragmatic or ab- 
dominal type of breathing; and the latter breathes 
principally with the upper portion of the chest, 
which is culled the costal type of breathing. The 
two types of breathing maybe recognized by the 
eye. Observe the act of respiration in a man. 
You will sec no perceptible motion of the chest, but 
;i strong, regular movement of the abdominal 
muscles. Observe the act of respiration in the 

47 



48 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

average woman. You will notice a rapid, violent 
heaving of the chest and almost no action of the 
abdominal muscles. The order of abdominal and 
costal breathing in the female is the exact reverse 
of that of the male. The difference in the method 
of breathing is so universal among civilized women 
that it has, until recently, been supposed by 
physicians thai the costal breathing of women is 
primitive; Adam was created to breathe abdomi- 
nally and Eve was preordained to pant with the 
upper chest. Anatomists have even kindly at- 
tempted to justify the Creator in this remarkable 
phenomenon. They explained that in the jorocess 
of generation there are periods in the life of woman 
in which abdominal breathing is difficult, and to 
meet the demands of reproduction, the Creator re- 
versed the type of breathing in women. 

"Within the last few years anatomists and physi- 
ologists have discredited the theory that the re- 
versed type of breathing is designed by nature. 
They observed that there was no perceptible dif- 
ference in the respiratory movements of boys and 
girls up to the age of about twelve or fourteen 
years ; that uncorseted laboring women breathe 
after the masculine type ; that, during sleep, when 
the abdominal muscles are unconstrained by dress, 



HOW SHALL WOMAN BREATHE t 49 

woman's respiratory movements are abdominal. 
Moreover, there is no provision of chest respiration 
to meet the difficulties of generation among females 
of the lower order of animals. Recently several 
physicians have made careful examination of the 
mechanism of breathing among women who have 
never worn civilized dress, and the investigations 
prove that the reversed order of breathing is due 
to the corset and not to the wise provision of the 
Creator. Dr. Mays of Philadelphia carefully ex- 
amined the chest movements of eighty-two Indian 
girls of the Lincoln University. These girls had 
been brought to the school in their wild state and 
had never worn tight clothing. As a result of these 
investigations, Dr. Mays observed that "a most 
marked modification has taken place in the move- 
ments of the female thorax during the transition 
period from savage to civilized life. A complete 
reversal of the type of respiration has taken place ; 
the abdominal type of the Indian becoming the 
costal type of the civilized female." That this 
reversal has been effected principally by dress, Dr. 
Mays proves by various experiments. 

Dr. J. H. Kellogg says, concerning the theory 
thai costal breathing is natural to woman, "in ar- 
riving at this conclusion physiologists seem to have 



50 THE WELL DRESSED WOMAN. 

confined their studies of respiration in women 
wholly to civilized women, in whom the mode of 
dress is evidently calculated to produce serious 
interference with the respiratory faculty. It is 
undoubtedly true that most women do breathe with 
the upper part of the chest ; but whether this is 
a natural peculiarity or an acquired, unnatural, and 
depraved one, is a question which I am inclined to 
answer in harmony with the latter supposition, 
basing my conclusions upon the following unde- 
niable facts : 

"1st. In childhood and until about the age of 
puberty, respiration in the boy or girl is exactly the 
same. 

"2d. Although there is a change in the mode of 
respiration in most females, usually soon after the 
age of puberty, marked by increased costal respira- 
tion and diminished abdominal or deep respiration, 
this change can be accounted for on other than 
physiological grounds. 

"3d. I believe the cause of this modification of 
respiration is the change in dress which is usually 
made about the time of puberty. The young girl 
is now becoming a woman and must acquire the 
art of lacing, wearing corsets, stays, and sundry 




A simple form of walking-dress, of the conventional Length. T 
fama in the back and no darts in the front of the bodice. The i 
\liuiii the drawing was made weighs 150 pounds. 



HOW SHALL WOMAN BREATHE? 51 

other contrivances which will aid in producing a 
' fine form.' 

" 4th. I have met a number of ladies whose good 
fortune and good sense had delivered them from 
the distorting influence of corset- wearing and tight- 
lacing, and have invariably observed that the}" are 
capable of as deep respiration as men and practise 
it naturally. I am thoroughly convinced that this 
so-called physiological difference between man and 
woman is really a pathological rather than a physi- 
ological difference. In short, I believe that the 
only reason why women do not, under ordinary 
circumstances, breathe as do men is simply that 
the} - cannot breathe naturally." 

Dr. Kellogg's investigations were made with 
the pneumograph and recording cylinder. The 
pneumograph is placed successively on the chest 
and abdomen. It rises and falls with the act of 
respiration, and the power of the movement is indi- 
cated by the registering cylinder. Fig. 15 repre- 
sents the breathing of a man and Fig. 16 the 
breathing of a civilized woman. The curves of the 
former show almost no motion in the chest and 
strong motion of the diaphragm. In the latter the 
order of costal and abdominal breathing is reversed. 
Dr. Kellogg's first observations were upon Chinese 



52 



THE WELL-DBE88ED WOMAJS. 



women of San Francisco who know nothing of waist 
constricture. Of twenty Chinese women whom lie 
examined " not one presented the costal type of 




Abdominal. 



Man. 

Fig. 16. 



Costal. Abdominal. 

Civilized Woman (unmarried, age 89 \ears). 

respiration. In every one the abdominal breathing 
was as prominent as in males who lead sedentarj 
lives" I Fig. 17 1. Dr. Kellogg's next observations 




Costal. A I 

Chinese Woman. 



HOW SHALL WOMAN BREATHE? 



53 



were upon the Yuma Indians of Arizona. The 
toilet of the Yuma squaw consists only of a birch 
bark apron. The girth of the waist was, on the 
average, about one and one half to two inches less 
than the chest girth. Tracings by the pneumograph 
gave strong abdominal curves, showing the male 
type of breathing. Figs. 18, 19, and 20 explain 




Costal. Abdominal. 

ludiau Man (Chickasaw}. 



Costal. Abdominal. 

Indian Woman (Chickasaw). 




Costal. Abdominal. 

Cilfppeway Indian Woman. 



i>4 THE WELL DRESSED WOMAN. 

themselves and show that the women of the 
Chickasaw and Chippeway tribes breathe after the 
manner of the men. Fig. 21 represents the respira- 



Costal. Abdominal. 

A Scotch Woman wh<> lias never worn a rora t (age I"), unmarried). 

tory movements of a Scotch woman, forty-five years 
of age, who had never worn corsets and had never 
been afflicted with the pelvic disorders so common 
among civilized women. The tracings indicate the 
male type of breathing. Fig. 22 shows the respi- 




Abdominal. 

MOUth "f l'l • -'I,;. ':.\ 



ratory movement of woman in the seventh month 
of pregnancy who had worn tight corsets until 
within a few weeks. Fig. 2.'; shows the respiratory 



HOW SHALL WOMAN BREATHE? 



55 



movement of a woman one week before confine- 
ment. She had worn tight corsets for ten or twelve 
years, but had worn loose clothing during the pre- 




Costal. Abdominal. 

Woman, a Week Before Confinement. 



natal period. Abdominal respiration is well pro- 
nounced notwithstanding the supposed impediment 
of gestation. 

Both Dr. Mays and Dr. Kellogg have observed 
the respiratory movements of men in corsets. The 
results show that a man in corsets breathes like a 
woman in corsets, with the costal movement. Dr. 
Kellogg's tracing (Fig. 24) represents the reversed 
order of breathing in a corseted man. 



Costal. Abdominal. 

Man in Corset, 



56 THE WELL- DRESS EI) WOMAN. 

Figs. 25 and 26 show that among animals the 
type of breathing is the same in male and female. 



Costal. Abdominal. Costal. Abdominal. 

Male Dog Female D<«. 

Dr. Kellogg's experiments prove thai "women 
who have never worn tight clothing breathe ab- 
dominally, as do men, and that civilized women who 
have formerly worn corsets, after having modified 
their dress in accordance with the demands of 
health, subsequently acquire the abdominal type 
of respiratiop " (Fig. 27). 

Via. 27. 



Costal. Abdominal. 

A Reformed Corset-wearer (ordinary respiration). 

All experiments on this subject show that, aside 
from clothing, physical weakness and sedentary 
habits in either man or woman tend to chest-breath- 



HOW SHALL WOMAN BREATHE? 57 

ing. A sick man sometimes breathes with the 
chest ; when he does so he is, to use the words of a 
physician, "pretty far gone." Can anything be 
said in extenuation of habits of life which have so 
reversed the order of respiration in civilized women 
that, until the tests of modern science have been 
applied, an acquired type of breathing has passed 
for the natural type ? 

The other great organ of breathing is the dia- 
phragm, a powerful muscle lying between the thorax 
and abdomen. Dr. J. M. "W. Kitchen, who has given 
most careful stiuVy to this organ, says : " The 
vast majority of the human race live and die in 
absolute ignorance of the fact that there is such an 
n-gan as the diaphragm — one of the most important 
Btructures of the human body. . . . The possession 
of a highly developed diaphragm is a principal 
feature in the highly organized animal. Its posses- 
sion gives to man great respiratory and vocal 
facilities, which would be lost with the abolition of 
the organ. . . . The whole civilized world is in 
bondage to a pernicious habit of dress — practised 
l»v women and countenanced by men — that threat- 
ens the abrogation of the diaphragm. Were it not 
for the nightly recess which the diaphragm receives 
from the constricting pressure of the tight waist, it 



58 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

would soon atrophy, and life to the corset-wearer 
would be a very brief span." 

The offices of this unknown organ, the dia- 
phragm, are manifold. Its contraction and expan- 
sion are the initial movements in the act of breathing. 
Dr. Kitchen says that "next to the function of 
respiration, the diaphragm's most important use is 
in furnishing and regulating the necessary supply 
of air forced through the vocal and speech-organs 
in forming speech and song."' Teachers of voice 
culture tell us that sustaining perfectly the coin inn 
of air is the greatest desideratum in the use of the 
voice, and that the diaphragm is the only muscle 
which holds the air-column in check. The first 
step in voice-culture is learning to breathe, and the 
first step in learning to breathe is learning to hold 
the diaphragm. As a result of voice-forcing among 
women who sing in tight clothing, we have the 
painful spectacle of the labored chest movement, 
almost invariably accompanied by a thin quality 
of voice. The delicate organs of the throat are 
compelled to do work which belongs to the power- 
ful respiratory muscle. 

We do not yet know the possibilities of the 
female voice, nor shall we know until, through 
generations of right living, women develop a vigor- 




THE DAKCIKG GIEL. AKTEK CANOVA, 



HOW SHALL WOMAN BREATHE* 59 

ous capacity for diaphragmatic breathing. Special- 
ists observe that female artists require frequent 
seasons of rest, in order to retain the voice, and 
that they lose the vocal gift at an early age. 
Throat disorders are much more frequent among 
women than among men. Dr. Kitchen says that the 
laryngologist has fift}- female patients to one male, 
and attributes the cause to the corset. 

The old philosophers believed that the seat of 
the soul was in the diaphragm. When speech is 
formed by the organs of the throat our words 
are " born dead." They lack the quality which 
commands attention. Plato said: "Speak that I 
nmy know you." What judgment would that 
philosopher pass upon the character of the women 
of to-day, did his practised ear detect the impover- 
ished quality of our tone-life ? 

The action of the diaphragm is necessary to 
digestion, because its movements press upon the 
liver and thus aid in the secretion of its fluids. The 
diaphragm assists also in the circulation of the 
blood, and its unrestricted movement is necessary 
to the strength of the pelvic muscles. 

Among the diseases which can be traced to defec- 
tive respiration are: affections of the throat and 
lungs, especially consumption, asthma, catarrh, 



60 THE WELL- DRESSED WOMAN. 

headache, and insanity. To enumerate different 
diseases which can be traced to lack of fresh air 
and defective circulation is to rehearse only a part 
of the evils occasioned by the use of the corset. 

The nourishment and strength of every organ 
and tissue depends upon the supply of pure oxy- 
genized blood. From the crown of the head to the 
sole of the foot there is not an organ or function 
which is not enfeebled and depressed. Dr. Sargent, 
in considering the strength of the two sexes, esti- 
mates a difference of ninety cubic inches in the 
capacity of the lungs. He says: "In order to 
ascertain the effect of tight clothing upon respira- 
tion, the spirometer was tried. The average natural 
girth of the chest over the ninth rib was twenty- 
eight inches, and with corsets twenty -six inches. 
The average lung capacity when corsets were worn 
was 134 cubic inches, when the corsets were re- 
moved the test showed an average lung capacity 
of 1G7 cubic inches — a gain of thirty-three cubic 
inches. Y> ho can estimate its value to the entire 
system '? Why preach the gospel of fresh air to 
women who deliberately throw away 20 per cent of 
it by the use of tight stays and corsets? " 

The lack of endurance and physical vigor which 
characterizes women may depend to a great degree 



HOW SHALL WOMAN BREATHE? 01 

upon their incapacity for lung expansion. Here also 
we find a cause of defective character. Courage, 
ambition, calmness, are born of vigorous respira- 
tion. Irritability and cowardness are born of in- 
sufficient respiration. The rapid heaving of the 
chest which is always found among tightly dressed 
women is the respiration which characterizes mo- 
ments of great emotion. Fear, anger, passion, cause 
the pulse to quicken and the chest to heave. To 
go through the physical motions of such excite- 
ment predisposes one to the actual emotion. Deep 
breathing is already recognized as a powerful 
psychical force. 

References Experimental Researches respecting the Relation 
of Dress to the Pelvic Diseases of Women. By J. II. Kellogg, 
M.D. The Diaphragm. By J. M. W. Kitchen, M.D. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE SINS OF THE COBSET REVEALED PA' THE ATJTOPSV 
OF THE LIVER. 

No organ suffers more than the liver from tight 
lacing. This is owing to the fact that the liver is 
located in that part of the body where the pressure 
is greatest, and also to the softness of its substance, 
which Baum compares to that of fat and connective 
tissue. The form of the liver, according to Baum, 
"varies with the pressure and volume of surround- 
ing organs." Not only is the form of the liver 
altered bevond recognition by the stricture of the 
corset, but its position and situation are changed. 
The form of the normal liver is given in Fig. 28. 

I. Form of Liver. — " Sometimes the liver is rolled 
up into a rounded conical mass, but, more fre- 
quently, it is more or less deeply notched, by 
the turning inwards of the margin of the ribs." 
The corset first pushes the liver out of its nor- 
mal position, then presses the floating rib into 

62 



EFFECT ON THE LIVER OF TIGHT-LACING. 63 

its yielding tissues, forming a laceration which 
is called "the tight-lace furrow." Frerich says: 
"From its daily occurrence the tight-lace liver 
(Schniirleber) has an importance greater than is 
otherwise its due." The bottom of the groove is at 




FlO. 88.— The Norma] Liver. 

times whitish in color from the thickening of its 
tissues. In some cases the furrow is so deep that 
Hie liver is almost cut in two. Coils of intestine fre 
quently lie in it. Fig. 21), from French's "Diseases 
<»t the Live)-," si lows the tight-lace depression and the 
series of folds sometimes produced in the liver by 
tin- narrowing of the base of the thorax. Dr. 
Prerich says that "a part "1' tin' right and usually 



64 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

of the left lobe also becomes separated by a depres- 
sion, the situation of this depression being some- 
times higher and sometimes lower, according to the 
locality of the lacing. The furrow thus formed 




Fig. 29.— Liver with an abnormally prolonged left lobe and a tiglit-lace 

depression. 

often penetrates deeply into the parenchyma, till 
there remains nothing more than a loose ligament- 
ous connection, which allows a free motion of the 
separated portion. 

The serous covering of this portion always ap- 
pears thickened and of an opaque white, and the 
biliary ducts may be seen through the peritoneal 
coat, enlarged and full of a brownish mucus, the 
evacuation of which is prevented by the constriction 
present. The veins are invariably enlarged. The 
margins of the detached portion are rounded and 



EFFECT ON THE LIVER OF TIGHT LACING. 65 

nodulated, and its tissue feels firmer and exhibits 
a fine]}- granular appearance, similar to that which 
we find throughout the entire organ when there 
is an obstruction to the circulation of the blood 
in consequence of disease of the heart," 

Dress reformers of the present day are exhorted 
to persuade in the name of the beautiful. One feels, 
therefore, like apologizing for these plain words and 
unsightly cuts. Yet scientific research compels 
women to see that which they would not otherwise 
beh'eve. These deformed and lacerated organs are 
not confined to a few sufferers in a remote Gerniar 
hospital. They exist, to a greater or less degree, 
with every woman who wears the tailor style of 
dress, for even a slight pressure affects the delicate 
tissues of the liver. "We may be sure that mis- 
shapen, diseased, and wounded organs lie under 
many a " tidy fit," though the corset-string is never 
drawn. For this reason the war of reform is waged 
against loose corsets and the entire system of 
smooth-fitting garments. 

The lacing furrow may be produced in the liver, 
v.jicn corsets arc not worn, by the use of light 
bands. When heavy clothing is suspended upon 
the waist b\ means of strings or bands, the pressure 



m THE WELL DRESSED WOMAN. 

needed to keep them in place is very great. The 
dissecting-table lias disclosed the liver of hard work- 
ing peasant women, who had never worn corsets, 
entirely cut in two and held together by a calloused 
bit of tissue. These women wore heavy, quilted 
homespun skirts suspended at the waist by tight 
bands. The same effect is produced in men, when 
trousers are supported by the belt instead of by 
suspenders. 

II. Position of Liver. — Corbin asserts that the 
liver is so changed in position that " the surface 
normally superior and horizontal becomes anterior 
and vertical. This effect is constant and is found 
in all, however loose the lacing may have been." 
The abnormal positions of the liver vary according 
to the part of the gland which is subjected to pres- 
sure. In the present fashion of dressing the organ 
is usually pushed downward. When the pressure 
comes on the upper third of the liver where the 
substance is of considerable thickness, " the axis is 
also carried very much downwards, and, in most 
cases, at the same time dragged over towards the 
middle line. . . . Upon examination, a liver of about 
' the normal size is then, to all appearances, remark- 
ably enlarged from its filling up the entire upper 
half of the abdominal cavity: even upon post- 



EFFECT ON THE LIVER OF TlGHT-LACING. (57 

mortem examination, this ma}- be the first impres- 
sion, until we are convinced of the contrary, by 
measuring and weighing the organ." Dr. Mur- 
ebison says: " Apparent enlargements of the liver 
from tight lacing are far more common than is 
generally believed." It is difficult to distinguish a 
liver altered in position through the operation of 
lacing and that which results from inflammatory 
enlargement. Dr. Cruveilhier shows that the liver 
altered in position by lacing may always be diag- 
nosed by the nodulated rounded margin. 

All observers testify as to the extreme mobility 
of the liver. From this fact Dr. Dickinson asks : 
" Are we not justified in believing that even a loosely 
adjusted corset must definitely displace so mobile an 
organ? . . . The earlier corsets are worn, the more 
the liver will be affected, since it is proportionately 
much larger in the child than in the adult. Pre- 
vious to puberty its weight may be as much as one 
thirtieth, or even one twentieth, of that of the entire 
body; in the adult it averages one fortieth." 

The spleen, whose function is supposed to be the 
formation of blood globules, is variously affected. 
Sometimes it is enlarged, sometimes inflamed, 
Bometimes wasted away, sometimes it adheres to 
the lining of the membrane which covers the ab- 



68 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

domen. When the spleen is squeezed out of position 
it is called " the wandering spleen." Sometimes 
the extremity of the left lobe of the liver adheres to 
the spleen so that they are inseparable. 

The office of the liver is to secrete juices for the 
digestion of food. Not only are the secretions of 
the liver interfered with, but the character of the 
bile secreted is changed. Dr. J. T. W. Collins has 
shown that tight lacing interferes with the now of 
bile. "It has long been known to physiologists 
that the movements of the diaphragm aid the liver 
to empty its passages of bile. Each time the dia- 
phragm contracts, it presses down upon the liver 
and forces out the bile. This has been experiment- 
ally proved by observations upon animals. Dr. 
Collins concludes, from experiments upon guinea- 
pigs, that by reducing the circumference of the waist 
one fourth the amount of bile is diminished one 
half. This damming up of the outlets for the bile 
has been shown to be the frequent cause of gall- 
stones, a malady which occurs much more frequently 
in women than in men." 

The direct results of abnormalities of the liver 
are various diseases of that organ ; jaundice, a dis- 
ease to which women are especially subject; pleurisy, 
in consequence of inflammation; tumors and dys- 







A HOUSE-DRESS. 



EFFECT ON THE LIVER OF TIOHT-LACINO. 69 

pepsia. Under the conditions of constant pressure 
we may look for cancerous growths, sallow com- 
plexions, and the lugubrious expression of coun- 
tenance which usually coexists with a "torpid 




FlG. 30. -The present crusade is not against the corset only. Tt is 
Bgainsl the system of clothing the trunk in tights. 

liver." ()| "' Health Associations and our Societies 
for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals ought to 
Institute proceedings against this destructive prac- 
tice. Surely these -things ouglii not so to be. 

AJas for the atheism of woman's dress! Of all 
heresies this is the mosi insidious and impious. 



70 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

Godliness is a very practical thing. It is reverence 
for the Creator in the conduct of every-day life. 
Keligion is nothing more than right living, and a 
seamed liver means bad living. It shows that the 
soul is not in true relation with the Creator, and 
betrays a perverted moral sense. 

References. French's Diseases of the Liver, Vol. I. Dr. 
Robert L. Dickinson. — "The Corset," New York Medical Journal, 
1887. Corhiu. — " Des efi'ets produits par les corsets sur le foie," 
"Gaz. med. tie Paris," 1830. 



CHAPTEK VI. 

THE HEART, THE CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD, ETC. 

"I am fearfully and wonderfully made." 

Nature lias wonderful resources. When one 
organ is disabled other organs are overtaxed to 
supply the lack. In consequence of obstruction to 
pulmonary circulation the heart is overworked to 
supply blood and keep up the circulation. Dr. 
Sargent has ascertained the influence of tight cloth- 
ing on the action of the heart during exercise. "A 
dozen young women consented this summer to run 
540 yards in their loose gymnasium garments and 
then to run the same distance with corsets on. 
Tlic running time avus two minutes and thirty 
seconds for each person at each trial, and in order 
that there should be no cardiac excitement or 
depression following the first test, the second trial 
was made the following day. Before beginning 
tlir running the average heart-impulse was 84 beats 



72 THE WELL-DttEBSED WOMAN. 

to the minute ; after running the above named 
distance the heart-impulse was 152 beats to the 
minute ; the average natural waist-girth being 25 
inches. The next day corsets were worn during 
the exercise, and the average girth of waist was 
reduced to 24 inches. The same distance was run 
in the same time by all, and immediately afterward 
the average heart-impulse was found to be 168 
beats per minute. When I state that I should feel 
myself justified in advising an athlete not to enter 
a running or rowing race whose heart-impulse was 
160 beats per minute after a little exercise, even 
though there were not the slightest evidence of 
disease, one can form some idea of the wear and 
tear on this important organ and the physiological 
loss entailed upon the system in women who force 
it to labor for over half their lives under such a 
disadvantage as the tight corset imposes." Obstruc- 
tion to pulmonary circulation causes enlargement 
of the left veutricle, palpitation of the heart, and 
congestion of the brain, liver, and kidneys. 

Pressure on the st< in i<i<-h. -Every dyspeptic ap- 
preciates the statement of the vivisectionist who 
found that continual pressure on the stomach kills 
animals more quickly than when applied on any 
other organ. The compression of the corset pushes 



PEESSURE ON KIDNEYS. 73 

the stomach in various directions ; sometimes up- 
ward, when it encroaches upon the lungs ; some- 
times downward, when it deranges the organs 
below. Engel reports a stomach " shoved to the 
left, its axis changed from a horizontal or oblique 
direction to a vertical, so that the lesser curvature 
ran down to the left of the spinal column." Con- 
strictions resembling the liver-furrow are sometimes 
found, and the stomach ulcer is frequently produced. 
Shcemmering, a German physician, found the 
stomach nearly cut into two parts by excessive and 
long continued pressure. 

Pressure on Kidneys. — As an illustration of the 
injury of stricture to these organs, Dr. Mary Blake 
cites the experience of Austrian soldiers who re- 
tained the trousers about the hips by means of 
leather straps. Aii alarming prevalence of kidney 
trouble led to a careful examination of the cause. 
It was decided that the tight leather strap about 
the loins occasioned the disease and suspenders 
Rrere made imperative. It is believed that pressure 
and heat upon the lower part of the back is an 
exciting cause of kidney disease among women. 

The bowels, " \\\^ great sewers of the bodily 
system," are impeded in their peristaltic motion and 
deprived of the proper supply of blood. Oonstipa- 



74 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

tion and the various diseases which result from it 
is produced, not only through the inability of the 
digestive organs to assimilate food, but through the 
weakness of the muscles whose office it is to 
eliminate waste matter. Among women tightly 
dressed it is very common to hear a rumbling 
sound in the bowels. A small portion of the 
intestines is reduced in size by compression, and in 
the effort of the intestinal contents to pass through, 
the sound is produced. 

The ( irculatim of the Blood.— The circulation of 
the blood is prevented by the unequal distribution 
as well as the stricture of clothing. The trunk 
of the body is enveloped in many layers and the 
limbs which are near the ground, where cold cur- 
rents of air circulate and moisture from the earth 
arises, are thinly clad. The circulation of the blood 
is impeded by stricture at the waist, by high, tight 
collars, tight sleeves, tight garters, and tight boots. 
The London Lancet recorded recently the death of a 
young woman from asphyxia caused by the tightness 
of the corset and collar. The blood was sent to the 
head through the arteries and its return through 
the veins was prevented by the tightness of the collar. 
Professor Forster, director of the University Oph- 
thalmic Clinic of Breslau, made a careful observa- 



THE CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD. 15 

tion of some three hundred cases of short-sighted- 
ness in children. " These observations led to the 
conclusion that too tight collars were in a large 
number of cases responsible for the trouble. He 
found the patients suffering from a chronic com- 
plaint brought on by a disturbance in the regular 
and normal flow of blood, which he traced to the 
wearing of collars which were not sufficiently loose, 
and parents and teachers were cautioned to guard 
against continuing their use." Dr. Bond attributes 
to the ligature of the garter the varicose veins 
and the varicose ulcers, which are the scourge of 
laboring people. Among this class the stockings 
are usually held in place b} r a cord or strap 
tightly bound below the knee. The injury of 
the garter is greater when it is worn below 
the knee, because above the knee the veins are 
somewhat protected by the two large tendons 
known as ham-strings. Dr. Bond strongly con- 
• 1< n i us elastic bands for the reason that they never 
relax their pressure. Non-elastic bands are some- 
times relaxed during muscular reaction. 

A gaiter tight enough t<> keep stockings snugly 
in place always makes a depression in the leg and 
seriously impedes the circulation of the blood. 
Cold feet and legs are frequent results of this 



76 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

stricture. Numbness and cramps are occasionally 
produced. Equable circulation is necessary to 
health. The nutrition and power of every organ, 
tissue, and muscle depends upon the proper supply 
of good blood. Rush of blood to the head, neural- 
gia, often induced by defective circulation, are 
obvious consequences of the improper distribution 
and stricture of dress. 

Loss of Muscular Power.— Exorcise is the great 
agent of development. Women are debarred bv 
dress from the general exercise which is necessary 
to physical well-being. They are not able to go 
out in unpropitious weather without exposure to 
danger from dampness of skirts and ankles. They 
are not able to move with vigor because of the 
weight and clumsiness of skirts ; while the tight- 
ness of waist and sleeves prevents the free use of 
the arms and waist muscles. The muscles of the 
back, loins, and abdomen are used only by labor- 
ing women. "Muscles which are not used never 
develop. If restraint comes in adult life, the 
muscle degenerates and returns to infantile con- 
dition." Their health and strength affects also 
the circulation of the blood. To interfere with the 
function of the muscles of the back, loins, and ab- 
domen is a dangerous process. Their strength is 



r 




i;v E. T. JEWET1 



A house-dress, showing tbe beauty of unbroken lines. 



LOSS OF MUSCULAR POWER. 77 

aii index of tlie strength of the body. Upon their 
vigor depends the vigor and health of the organs 
lying beneath. Tight dress causes also unnecessary 
friction in every movement of the -muscles. If 
several ropes are to play through a given aperture 
;ind that aperture is reduced in size so that they 
are pressed sharply upon each other, they must 
wear out very rapidly under the increased friction. 
So if the muscles and organs are compelled to 
work under abnormal constriction, the result must 
be unnecessary wear, ending in pain and disease. 

Lack of exercise induces dj-spepsia, and Dr. 
JBayard Holmes attributes to it "the stealthy onset 
of the fat disease, which may well be called the 
second curse of women." 

The internal organs require exercise for develop- 
ment. The lungs continually inspire and expel the 
air; the heart continually contracts and expands; 
the stomach continually rolls food for mastication; 
tin- diaphragm continually rises and falls; the 
bowels Lave a constant peristaltic motion. When 
these activities are interrupted, the vital organs are 
reduced in size and power, and their functions are 
Weakened. Moreover, a purely local disease or 
weakness is impossible. When one organ suffers, 
every other organ suffers with it. This is es- 



78 THE WELL-DHESSED WOMAN. 

pecially true of the vital organs. The strength 
and well-being of the entire body depends upon 
the integrity and power of the heart, lungs, and 
stomach. 

The Nervous System. — The great ganglia of nerves 
called the solar plexus lie posterior to the stomach, 
and are pressed from the front and the back by the 
corset. When the bustle is worn there is ;m ad- 
ditional pressure upon this ganglia of nerves. 
Continual pressure here means local irritation and 
a disturbed condition of the entire body. 

Weakness of muscles has also a direct influence 
on the nerve-power. " "When a muscle is unused, 
the nerve which supplies that muscle is unused, 
and it suffers arrest of development, or it atrophies. 
AVI 1 en the nerve atrophies, the reservoir of force in 
the cortex of the brain undergoes a corresponding 
change." * 

The Brain. — The health of the brain, "depend- 
ing upon digestion, nutrition, the quantity and 
quality and speed of the blood sent to the brain, — 
depending also on physical exercise, fatigue and re- 
pose, health and disease, on nerve-action, fluctua- 
tion of feeling, exhaustion of nerve-power," is 



* Dr. Bayard Holmes. 






THE BRAIN. 79 

intimately connected with the subject of dress. 
Dr. Richardson says : " If to-morrow women were 
placed in all respects on an equality with men, — if 
they were permitted to sit in Parliament, enter the 
jurv-box, or ascend the bench itself,— they would re- 
main subject to superior mental and physical force 
so long as they crippled their physical, vital, and 
mental constitution by this one practice of cul- 
tivating, under an atrocious view of what is beauti- 
ful, a form of body which reduces physical power 
and thereby deadens mental capacity." Diseases 
of any kind affect the brain. In admitting patients 
to the insane asylum, the most careful examination 
is made, not only into physical condition of the 
patient, but the physical history of his ancestors. 
The fact that a remote relative suffered from can- 
cer, for example, weighs in the consideration of the 
causes producing insanity and the chances of re- 
eovery. Such facts make it highly probable that 
unhygienic dress is one of the factors which drive 
civilized people to the insane asylum, and give 
weight to the statement that "corset-wearing has 
been the cause of more idiotic, crippled, and erratic 
children than rum-drinking." 

The power of bhe brain depends upon the body 
not simply because it is through the body that the 



80 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

volition of the brain is executed : the brain actu- 
ally depends upon the body for growth. "Brain is 
evolved from the organization. . . . Xo perfect brain 
ever crowns an imperfect body." 

References. Dr. D. A. Sargent, Scribner's Magazine, Febru* 
ary, iss9; Dr. Mary Blake, "Die- and Health;" Thomas Bond, 
F.R.C.S., Popular Science Monthly, December, 1 87(5 ; Bayard 
Holmes, 31. D., "The Unreasonableness of Modern Dress." 



CHAPTEE VII. 



GYNECOLOGY. 



" Accuse not Nature : she hath done her part. 
Do thou but thine." — Milton. 

" Better to hunt in fields for health unbought, 
Than fee the doctor for a nauseous draught. 
The wise for cure on exercise depend ; 
God never made his work for man to mend." 

— Dryden. 

In the displacement and diseases of the pelvic 
organs is found the chief cause of woman's ill-health. 
The average testimony of physicians in general 
practice is that more than half of their professional 
business comes from these maladies. The 'general 
practitioner is, however, intrusted with only simple 
cases. A numerous and busy class of specialists 
devote themselves exclusively to the study and 
treatment of the more serious and threatening com- 
plications. Not only is the body incapacitated for 

active life, but the mind is more or less influenced 

81 



82 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

by diseases of the pelvic organs. Our insane asy- 
lums are largely filled by patients whose mental 
aberrations have originated in these disorders. In 
view of these distressing facts, one of two conclu- 
sions is inevitable: the Creator has failed in His 
plan for the structure of the female body, or women 
are at fault in their method of living. So great is 
the perverseness of mind on this subject, that it is 
said "every woman by mere structure is a lifelong 
invalid." 

Specialists concur in the opinion that the chief 
cause of pelvic disturbances is found in woman's 
method of clothing. They consider it inevitable 
that a pressure which reduces the waist from three 
to fifteen inches, and pushes the organs downward 
and inward, should result in displacement and dis- 
ease. " Woman's weaknesses " are very justly called 
" woman's follies." 

One specialist says : "1 am sure, without being 
able to prove it, that 90 per cent of the so-called 
female diseases have their origin in corsets and 
heavy skirts. They not only depress the pelvic 
organs by their pressure and weight, but weaken all 
their normal efforts." 

There is no tendency to female weaknesses in 
animals of the lower order. It is probable that 



GYNECOLOGY. 83 

similar conditions of pressure and bandaging would 
produce, in them, similar results. 

Conjectures on this subject are not sufficient, and 
statistical demonstrations are accumulating. Dr. 
Dickinson estimates, by tracings and measurements, 
the extent of the displacement, caused bj-the press- 
ure of the corset, on the pelvic floor : " With a corset 
quite tight, but not so tight as the patient could 
bear it, as in a new dress or at a ball, this displace- 
ment is a third of an inch. The distance seems 
insignificant, yet it is almost the deepest position to 
which the structures can be forced by straining 
down. This forcing downward is sufficient to render 
the uterine supports tense, and in their taut con- 
dition any extra or added stress, like deep breathing, 
"i- exertion, or bending, might well be enough to 
each time slightly overstrain these stretched sup- 
ports. Slowly and steadily as this force acts, }ield- 
iug must in time occur." Engd states that "in every 
one of thirty autopsies in which evidences of tight 
lacing were found, prolapsus was evident in some 
degree, except where ;i 1 1 liesion had ] >re vented it." 

The objectionable features of the corset diminish 
in proportion to its looseness, s<> Ear as \\\i> thoracic 
cavity is concerned. If no skirts were hung upon 
the corset, and if the wearer could always remain 



84 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

standing, they would also be diminished so far as 
the pelvic organs are concerned. Granted that the 
corset is loose, it is made of stiff, mryielding material 
and furnished with steels and whalebones. It sur- 
rounds a part of the body whose tissues consist 
nine tenths of water. Dr. Kitchen says that these 
tissues, or even human bone, will shrink away and 
disappear under the slightest pressure, if only it be 
continued. The corset rests upon the hips, with 
no support from the shoulders, and bears the weight 
of the skirts which are fastened round it. Whether 
loose or tight, all this weight drags upon the ab- 
domen. With even- forward movement of the body 
the abdomen is distended. The corset, whether loose 
or tight, does not enlarge to accommodate the dis- 
tended al »domen. On the contrary, the forward move- 
ment which enlarges the abdomen doubles the 
downward and inward push of the corset. (See 
Figs. 9 and 10, Chapter III.) 

Let the corset- wearer place her hand under the 
corset with the body erect and then with the body- 
bent forward, and she will feel the increased press- 
ure in the latter position. The school-girl at her 
desk, the seamstress at the machine — every woman 
leaning forward, whether wearing a loose or tight 





jam. iiadim;. 



G 7NEC0L0G Y. 85 

corset, presses the abdominal contents downward 
and inward. 

Dr. Kellogg lias made very important observa- 
tions, by means of an air-pessary connected with a 
tambour, showing the influence of the corset upon 
the movements of the pelvic organs. These observa- 
tions and experiments show that " there is a normal 
movement of the pelvic viscera corresponding to 
those of respiration," and that " these movements are 
lessened by constriction of the waist." The move- 
ments of the pelvic organs depend upon the action 
of the diaphragm. " This muscle not being able 
to descend to the usual degree, there is less move- 
ment of the pelvic viscera. 

"Fig. 34 exhibits the movements of the pelvic 




Ordinary. Forced. 

Respiratory Tracing (Vaginal). 

organs produced by respiration, ordinary and forced, 
in a patient in a horizontal position, and without 
Constricting bands of any sort. 



86 



THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 



" Fig. 35 shows the movements of the pelvic organs 
resulting from ordinary and forced respiration, pa- 
tient horizontal, as before, but wearing a corset 
moderately tight. The difference between the two 
tracings is noticeable in that the movement of the 




Ordinary. Forced. 

Vaginal Tracing, with Corset. 



pelvic organs is less when the corset is tight than 
when it is loose. The reason for this is made ap- 
parent by the tracing shown in Fig. 36, the first 




Without Corset 



Tightening 
Corset. 

With and without Corset. 



With Corset. 



GYNECOLOGY. 87 

part of which shows ordinary respiration without a 
corset ; the last part, ordinary respiration after the 
corset lias been applied. The sudden elevation in 
the centre of the tracing indicates the downward 
movement of the pelvic organs occasioned by the 
tightening of the corset." 

Dr. Kellogg estimates that the movement of the 
uterus up and down in ordinary breathing is from 
.1 to .3 of an inch. Coughing and deep breathing, 
straining and similar movements, may increase this 
to .5 of an inch. The restricted movements of the 
pelvic organs result in muscular weakness and mal- 
nutrition of the pelvic organs. 

The pelvic organs are prevented from displace- 
ment chiefly b} T the " round ligaments." These 
being "muscular structures which, by their nerve- 
connections, are made to contract at the same 
time as the abdominal muscles, it is evident 
that anything which interferes with the free 
action of the abdominal muscles must equally 
interfere with the action of the round ligaments. 
In a woman who has long worn a corset the ab- 
dominal walls are lax, soft, and of feeble muscu- 
lar power. The round ligaments of such a Avoman 
must necessarily be in the same condition." In 
practical experience Dr. Kellogg finds that "these 



88 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

ligaments which have been in a state of enforced idle- 
ness are slender, brittle, and degenerate. They 
seem to be nothing more than membranous bands." 

Again the restricted movement of the diaphragm 
weakens the abdominal organs because its action is 
necessary to the circulation of blood in the pelvis. 
Indeed, "the diaphragm appears to act as a double 
pump, drawing blood towards the heart at the same 
time that it draws air into the Jungs. Its influence 
upon the portal circulation and venous system of 
the pelvis is second only in importance to its 
respiratory function. When its organs are deprived 
of this aid to their venous circulation, congestions 
are a natural and necessary consequence." 

"W ith a system of dress which keeps certain mus- 
cles of the pelvis continually on the stretch, so that 
tiny become non-contractile; with other muscles 
degenerate from disuse; with the whole muscular 
system of the abdomen inactive and weak, and all 
its organs misplaced ami in a state of chronic starva- 
tion, should it be a subject of wonder that women 
are afflicted by diseases which require the skill of 
a surgeon's knife. and various appliances of external 
support '? Is it strange that amesthetics and instru- 
ments are needed to alleviate and shorten the pangs 
of childbirth ? The science of gynecology is a 



GYNECOLOGY. 89 

monument to the folly of women. The operating- 
table and the surgeon's knife are a disgraceful 
makeshift of the perverse victim. " There is but 
one remedy and it is surgical — the knife must be 
applied to the corset-string." 

A right understanding of the normal functions 
of the pelvic organs is important not simply be- 
cause disturbances of these organs are a source 
of great suffering, but because it is upon her 
peculiar physiological functions that physicians 
base their arguments against co-education and 
the higher education of woman. It is said that 
the performance of these physiological functions 
disqualifies woman for continuous mental and 
physical labor. The strain and excitement unfit 
her for the higher duties of motherhood, and the 
good woman, as the old English sign board painted 
it, is the woman without a head. 

Concerning the physiological functions of woman 
and the nature and extent of their demands upon 
her system, we quote from Dr. Chad wick: "It is 
likewise untrue that the human system is inade- 
quate ti> allow two functions to go on at the same 
time. The brain, the kidneys, the stomach, and 
other organs are known to be generally in active 
operation at the same time without exhausting the 



90 THE WELLDRESSEl> WOMAN. 

vital powers. A woman is endowed with additional 
vigor to meet the requirements of an additional 
function. As the processes included in this function 
are constantly going on in the system, remission of 
mental or physical exercise, during any special 
week in each month, will have no more effect in re- 
serving of energy for the benefit of other functions 
than rest during any other week. 

" Unfortunately the tendency of civilization is to 
dwarf the physical development, and to stimulate 
the mental and emotional powers to such an extent 
that functions which were designed to operate with- 
out disturbance have come to be attended by pain 
and obscure effects upon remote parts of the body. 
Girls should have hours when they are expected to 
run, jump, swim, play ball, and engage in othei 
active games, to shout and laugh, for by all such 
exercises the muscles are developed and strength- 
ened, the blood is made to circulate freely, and the 
lungs are fully inflated, so that a full supply of 
oxygen is obtained, and the effete carbonic acid ex- 
pelled." 

It should be observed that Dr. Chad wick includes 
jumping among the exercises which legitimately be- 
long to girls. This is quite contrary to the gener- 
ally received opinion that the structure of woman 



GYNECOLOGY. 91 

makes jumping a dangerous amusement. Even 
intelligent women believe that the pelvic organs 
would fall, if put to this test. These organs are 
firmly secured, by muscles, ligaments, and surround- 
ing organs, and there is no more reason to fear their 
fall, under proper conditions, than there is to fear 
prolapsus of the kidneys, liver, or lungs. 

It is especially important, in considering these 
subjects, to remember that the law is that all the 
processes of normal life are painless. Women 
usually accept the pangs of maternity as an irrev- 
ocable part of the curse pronounced upon Eve. 
"We cannot believe that an arbitrary decree of 
eternal vengeance thus broods over womanhood. 
It is not possible that, at a time when mother-care 
is most needed, the mother should be shut away in 
darkened seclusion. The sufferings of childbirth, 
which are chiefly the result of wrong living, may 
be, to a great extent, abrogated by right living. 

This hypothesis is substantiated by the experi- 
ence of the peasant and the uncivilized mother. 
Among these <'lasses there is almost no suffering, 
and no weakness and debility either before or after 
fche birth of children. Science says : " Pain in child- 
birth is a morbid symptom ; it is a perversion of 
nature caused by modes of living not consistent 



92 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

with the most health}' condition of the system, and 
a regimen which would insure a completely healthy 
condition might be counted upon with certainty to 
do away with such pain." There is no more direct 
method of overcoming these evils than through the 
regimen of exercise and of rational dress. 

The penalty of violated law does not break alone 
on the head of the individual transgressor. Phy- 
sicians attribute to the dress of mothers, during the 
antenatal period, the fact that many children are de- 
formed from birth. There is not room for the develop- 
ment of the infant body. A puny, diseased physique; 
a brain of diminished capacity ; a fretful, ignoble 
spirit; these arc the gifts of the corseted mother to 
her helpless posterity. Mother-love! the woman 
who is guilty of these crimes has no conception of 
the true mother-soirit. To loosen the corse t or to 
lay it aside for a period of nine months does not 
exculpate the mother. It is the habits of the whole 
life, not the experience of nine mouths, which de- 
termine the dangers of childbearing and to a great 
extent modify the life of the child, both physically 
and morally. 

The imperative need in overcoming these various 
evils is a system of clothing which shall neither 
displace the pelvic organs nor restrain their normal 




Thf dressmaker advises stout women to wear tightly-fitting gowns, the waist 
laving man) seams. The artisl advises stout women to wear soft, heavy tex- 
tarefi falling in large folds which conceal the massive contours, These make 
lliis figure of a woman weighing 17(5 pounds seem slight. 



GYNECOLOGY. 98 

operations, upon whose activity the strength of sup- 
porting muscles depends. 

Clothing is needed which shall permit the free 
exercise of the body, for upon physical exercise de- 
pend its health and vitality. Every organ shares in 
tile general strength of the body. With physical 
rigor the sensory system will be held in equilibrium 
and the processes of nature will go on without fric- 
tion. An invalid is sometimes so abnormally acute 
of hearing, that the ticking of a clock, unnoticed in 
health, becomes a source of pain. This explains 
that abnormal state of the body in which the ordi- 
nary processes of nature become the occasion of 
Buffering. 

Freedom and exercise will also strengthen the 
muscles of the pelvis, so that the birth of a civilized 
baby will be accomplished with the same ease and 
safety as is experienced by the savage mother. 
Exercise is the gospel of a more vigorous life for 
woman. 

It would not be wise to advocate this theory 
without carefully guarding it from possibility of 
misconstruction. Unless there can be perfect 
freedom of clothing and exercise, so that the phy- 
sical education can be complete, there ought not 
to be any attempt at higher education. The 



9-4 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

brain and the nervous system would be forced to 
too great a pitch. Under the present regime of in- 
correct dress we believe that exercise, in the gym- 
nasium or in natural labor will be provocative not 
of good, but of evil. By common consent the only 
safe course has been adopted : it is not wise to 
jump, run, row, go up and down stairs, turn a mat- 
tress, or lift a heavy weight ; especial periods must 
be observed by physical and mental repose, and 
motherhood must be followed by weeks of seclu- 
sion. This is the penalty exacted by violated 
physical law. 

References. Dr. Robert L. Dickinson, New York Medical 
Journal; Dr. J. H. Kellogg, " Experimental Researches respect- 
ing the Relation of Dress to the Pelvic Diseases of Women ;" Dr. 
Chad wick, North American Review, Dec, 1882. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE PEDIGREE OF THE CORSET. 

"There's nane ever feared that the truth should be heard, 
But they whaum the truth wad indict." 

The true historian reads history not as a nar- 
rative of events, but in order to ascertain the forces 
which have produced certain results. Thus the 
history of the past bears on the intellectual and 
moral problems of the present. The history of the 
corset concerns us simply because its relation to 
al problems in the past helps us to see its rela- 
tion to these subjects at the present time. We 
should study the character of the people among 
whom it lias prevailed, the animus and taste which 
led to its adoption, the character of those who have 
in all ages condemned its use. Dr. Sargent says: 
" In thinking over the origin of this custom and its 
moral significance, we simply marvel at its prev- 
alence in a civilized community." The degree of 
lining i u every country is like a barometer, indi- 

95 



96 THE WELL DRESSED WOMAN. 

eating the artistic and moral condition of the epoch. 
An investigator on this subject states that narrow- 
waists and tight-lacing accompany epochs distin- 
guished for a bad state of public morals or a low 
ebb of artistic feeling. This seems a sweeping 
censure to those not familial - with the history of 
costume, but the archives of dress verify the state- 
ment. Everywhere we read the same story. Na- 
tional dress keeps pace with national history. Both 
begin in simplicity and end in voluptuousness. 
Tight-lacing has been one of the high-water marks 
of the self-indulgent period. 

A detailed history of the corset, with the at- 
tendant social environment, would occupy several 
volumes and require exhaustive research. In a 
single chapter it is possible to deal only with 
periods which are most familiar to the general 
reader. 

The earliest mention of girdling was made by 
that first dress-reformer, the prophet Isaiah. Israel, 
grown proud in prosperity, had given herself over 
to idolatry. Social degradation and anarchy infected 
the kingdom. Her rulers had become covetous and 
oppressive ; her daughters haughty, Avanton, extrav- 
agant. Isaiah saw in this corruption the signs of 
internal weakness wdiich would make apostate 



THE PEDIGHEE OF THE CORSET. 97 

Israel an easy prey to the Assyrian host. His 
judgments are especially directed against the van- 
ity and extravagant dress of the daughters of Zion. 
He prophesied of a time when instead of a-stomacher 
there should he a girding of sackcloth. 

An artificial shape of the Avaist among early 
Egyptian women, accompanying an age of extrav- 
agance, is shown by pictorial authority (Fig. 37). 

According to the research of Rousseau and others, 
compression of the body was not practised b}- the 
Spartans. Xenophon and Plutarch say that the 
Lycurgan system considered women as a part of 
the state and placed them under training hardly 
less rigorous than the men. 

There is no evidence of waist stricture in the 
succeeding period, that of the worship of the beauti- 
ful. In the days of unbridled extravagance which 
preceded the destruction of the Greek republics, 
patriotism and moral rectitude were forgotten. The 
poor looked with envy and hatred on the luxury of 
$he rich. Love of mone}', frivolity, and personal 
vanity were besetting sins. The custom of bandag- 
ing originated with the courtesans. Alexis of 
Alliens gives a description of the bandaging used 
to correct or conceal the faults in form of the young 
'■iris whom the courtesans look to educate for their 



98 THE WELL- DRESSED WOMAN. 

uulioly work. The custom, originating in this lowest 
order of society, was adopted by women of rank. 




Fig. 37.— Egyptian Lady. 



Hippocrates, a Greek physician, called the Father 
of Medicine, censured the ladies of Cos for too 



THE PEDIGREE OF THE CORSET. VM 

tightly compressing their ribs and thus interfering 
with their breathing powers ; and Aristophanes 
ridicules Cenesias for wearing, busks of linden- 
wood. 

The Romans, in their turn, took up the fashion 
of bandaging. The pressure of the Roman fascire 
differed, however, from that of the modern corset. 
Their pressure was exerted almost entirely on the 
thorax ; it stopped below the breast and left the 
abdomen free. The object was to increase the size 
of the hips by contrast with a narrow chest. Galien, 
the most eminent physician and one of the most 
learned men of his age, condemns this bandaging in 
his "Causes of Disease." He says that girls were 
from infancy strongly bound around the shoulder- 
blades and about the chest. The pressure being 
often unequal, the thorax was pushed prominently 
in front, or the spinal column became gibbous. 
Often the back was, so to speak, broken and drawn 
aside in such a way that one shoulder was raised, 
projected, and in every way larger, while the other 
was flattened and weakened. The zona, fascia 
stropMnum, and various other bandages were also 
used to suppress embonpoint and fulness of bust, 
which were considered deformities. The condition 
of society in the period of declining republicanism 



100 



THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 



was one which always imperils a people. Roman 
wealth had become immense, extravagant living had 
taken the place of early simplicity, religion was 
ridiculed, men and women gave themselves up to 
social excesses. Curious passages from old writers 
reproach the ancient coquetry which resorted to 
bandaging. Martial satirized the fashion a.d. 43. 
A historian of the Emperor Antony mentions that 
he wore corsets to suppress obesity. 

There are no evidences of waist coustricture dur- 
ing the early Middle Ages. About the eleventh 
century the power of fashion began to be felt, ex- 
travagant dress and tight bandaging increasing con- 
tinually. The corset of the twelfth century was a 
target for caricature, a French artist represented 
the devil in the dress and corset of a fashionable 
woman. In the fourteenth century "women painted, 
popped, and farded themselves, pulled the hair off 
the f.n-ehead because high foreheads were thought 
beautiful, and washed the hair in wine to change 
the color." They also desired " a slender and fair- 
shapen body." In the fifteenth century came the 
corsets " framed with steel and fortified with busks." 
AVe ought to find in that liberty of thought which 
produced in Germany a Reformation and in Italy a 
Renaissance a corresponding reaction in dress. 




A scarf worn loosely about, the shoulders and knotted "A la Charlotte 
today" i- suited to slight figures. The Marie Antoinette fichu is h favorite 

,'itl, artists, [1 preserves th< tline of the figure and gives an appearance 

f oneness between the upper and lower parts of the body. 



THE PEDIGREE OE THE CORSET. 101 

Mr. Heath says that, " in the western countries of 
Europe thoroughly leavened by these influences, the 
waist had ample scope and dress was open to no 
objection on the score of health or decency." 

The excessive lacing of the sixteenth century, 
practised in England, France, Austria, and Italy, 
which rendered the form " completely insectile," is 
the climax in the ignoble history of the corset. It 
is peculiarly significant that Catherine de' Medici 
introduced this form of lacing into France. "At 
that time a thirteen-inch waist measurement was 
the standard required by fashion. Xo woman was 
considered the proper figure whose waist could not 
be spanned by the two hands. To produce this 
result a strong, rigid corset was worn day and 
night until the waist was laced down to the re- 
quired size. Over this corset was placed a steel 
apparatus which reached from hip to throat" (Fig. 
38). Bulwer called the corset of Catherine de' 
Medici "the whalebone prison " (Fig. 39). 

The portrait of Eenry III., son of Catherine de' 
Medici, shows that tight lacing was practised by 
men (Fig. 40). 

The history of France in the days which pre- 
ceded and followed the French Revolution is mir- 
rored LI] the dreSS of these limes. Those who ll|»- 



102 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

liokl the corset argue its morality because " the onh 
period in which its general use appears to have 
beeu discontinued are the few years which iininedi- 




Fig. 38.— Steel Apparatus. 



ately followed the French Revolution, when the 
general licentiousness of manners and morals was 
accompanied by a corresponding indecency in 
dress." Such a statement is a misrepresentation 



THE PEDIGREE OF THE CORSET 



103 



of history. The French Revolution grew out of 
the selfishness and extravagance of the privileged 
classes. There had been years of wanton splendor 
in her palaces, and the price was an impoverished 
and discontented people. Among the frivolities of 




the eighteenth century were the powdered hair and 
the " patch-fashion." Ladies carried bits of court- 
plaster in patch-boxes and stopped even in the 
street to glance .it the mirror in the lid of the 
patch-bos and replace any which might have 
Eallen. As the climax approached, gayety and 
frivolity increased. " Every one was dressed as if 



104 



THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 



for a fancy ball that was never to leave off. The 
executioner was required to officiate at the gallows 




Fig. 40.— Henry III. 



and wheel frizzled, powdered, in a gold-lace coat, 
pumps, and white silk stockings." (Carlyle.) The 



THE PEDIGREE OF THE CORSET. 105 

Medici corset was still worn. Rousseau said of the 
tight dress of this period : " I cannot but think that 
this abuse, pushed in England to an inconceivable 
point, will in the end lead to the degeneracy of the 
race." 

When the reaction against centuries of civil and 
ecclesiastical oppression began to be felt, the de- 
sire for liberty showed itself even in dress. It was 
during the days which preceded the Revolution 
that women discarded corsets and the frivolities of 
Fashion. A French writer says of this period : 

" Gold lace, embroidery, and curls were dis- 
carded for plain brown coats and hair cut straight. 
Said one, ' These coats predict an outbreak for 
liberty.' So strong was the reaction in favor of 
simplicity that men buttoned their coats to conceal 
the stars and decorations which they had formerly 
been proud to exhibit." 

Racinet attributes the remarkable change in cos- 
tume to the influence of physicians during the 
latter part of the century. Others attribute it to 
the teaching of Rousseau. With all his foibles of 
character, Rousseau was a reformer and a republi- 
can. So greal was his influence over the women of 
that generation that mothers consented to suckle 
bheir own offspring, a duty which they had before 



106 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

despised. Rousseau's influence was felt even 
in England. Fairholt says of this time : " The 
walking and evening dresses of ladies in 1789 are 
tasteful and free of all extravagance, and have a 
modesty and simplicity worthy of praise. Nothing 
was used in the way of -support except a slight stay 
of dimity, ticking, or nankeen, innocent of busk or 
whalebone." Stanhope says : " Towards the Peace 
of 1783 there began to spread among both sexes a 
taste for greater plainness and simplicity in attire." 
Joseph IT. of Austria, a zealous though injudicious 
reformer, made a law confining the use of corsets 
to women of ill-fame. Such an act was in sym- 
pathy with his enlightened policy of government. 

The Revolution of France levelled all class dis- 
tinctions. Social equality was emphasized even in 
the fashions of 1790. It was expedient for the 
wealthy to dress simply and to mingle freely with 
other classes. Gowns of silk and of white muslin 
were proscribed, because they savored of the hated 
aristocracy. During this period certain artists, of 
whom David was the leader, conceived the idea 
that the Greek and Roman were the types which 
men and women ought to reproduce in the French 
republic. David is described as an honest and 
disinterested man carried awav bv the flood of 



THE PEDIGREE OF THE CORSET. 107 

enthusiasm which made all the intellect of France 
believe in a new era of equality. The general 
adoption of Greek and Koman costumes dates from 
the Directory. Attempts at this style before that 
period were isolated and confined to classes repre- 
senting art. (Racinet.) 

But the Revolution of '93, so grand in its begin- 
ning, never came to full fruition. In the hands of 
terrorists it was degraded into anarchy, and then 
lapsed into imperialism. The reaction of the 9th 
Thermidor was followed by a reaction in dress; 
and when the terror was over French society aban- 
doned itself to pleasure and gaj-ety. French ladies 
who had taken refuge in England during the Ptevo- 
lution returned and reinstated the fashions. They 
brought back all the extravagant habits of living to 
which they had become accustomed in England. 
( Bacinet.) The noitveaux riches and other upstarts 
indulged in the extremes of prodigality and fash- 
ion. A combination of Greco-mania and Anglo- 
mania produced the exaggerations of costume 
known ;is les merveiQsv&es and les incroyoMes. The 
corruption of the heart was manifest in this 
dress. During the Directory " on deliberait 8w le 
costume <) hi sauvage" and " nudity was on the point 

of becoming the fashion." The shoulders and 



108 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

neck were bared ; jewelled thongs bound the legs, 
and gold rings decked the toes. . A lighter corset, 
better adapted to the " imitation Greek " dress, 
took the place of that worn before the Revolution. 
After Napoleon's elevation to imperial power he 
adopted the most rigorous system of court-eti- 
quette. The splendor of the new regime helped to 
secure its tenure of power. An attempt to resur- 
rect the Medici corset was made by certain leaders 
of Paris fashion, but was opposed by the empress. 
Napoleon said concerning the revival of tight 
lacing in 1810 : " This wear, born of coquetry and 
bad taste, which murders children and ill-treats 
their offspring, tells of frivolous taste and warns 
me of approaching decadence." Bouchant, a writer 
of that period, says : " Stays are composed not of 
whalebone, indeed, or hardened leather, but of 
bars of iron and steel from three to four inches 
broad and many of them not less than eighteen 
inches in length," and that " it was by no means 
uncommon to see a mother lay her daughter down 
upon the carpet, and, placing her foot upon her 
back, break half a dozen laces in tightening her." 
The following object-lesson was given by Cuvier 
to a young lady addicted to the lacing habit : 
" Walking with Cuvier one day in the Jardiu des 



THE PEDIGREE OF THE CORSET. 109 

Plantes, she admired a plant whose elegant stem 
was adorned with a bloom of lovely color. Look- 
ing at her thin, pale face, he replied : ' Yon were 
like this flower once; to-morrow it will be as yon 
are now.' Next day Cuvier led the young lady to 
the same spot and bade her look at the flower. It 
was drooping and dying. She asked the cause. 
' This plant,' said he, ' is an image of yourself. 
I will show you what is the matter with it.' And 
the great naturalist pointed out to her a cord 
which was bound tightly around the stem. ' You 
are fading away exactly in the same manner, 
under the compression of your corset, and 3-011 are 
losing by degrees all your youthful charms, just 
because you have not the courage to resist this 
dangerous fashion." 

The corset was introduced into England by the 
Normans in the twelfth century. The earliest cor- 
sets are thought to have been comparatively harm- 
lens, made of firm, light material. By the fifteenth 
century they were made of steel and had busks of 

wood. A physician of this period quaintly de- 
scril es their injury : " They purchase a stinking 
breath ... and open a door into consumptions." 
Medieval romances are full of allusions to the 
Blender waists of women, which were then con- 



110 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

sidered a criterion of elegance. Chaucer described 
the lady of his period : 

" Her body was gentil and small as a weasel." 

He referred to the "middle small " and to "wand- 
like smallness," and denounced in uncompromising 
terms the follies of his generation. 

The excessive use of the corset in England char- 
acterized especially the reign of Queen Elizabeth. 
The body was incused in a stiff armor, and "both 
men and women squeezed in their waists, and both 
swelled out their garments below" (Fig. 41). This 
golden age of literature was the dark age of mo- 
rality so far as the court was concerned. It was a 
time of gastronomic indulgence, gross profanity, 
and unlimited folly in dress. The ruffs for the 
neck were stiffened by metal wires and by colored 
starch. These were so immense that a spoon two 
feet long was necessary to convey food safely to the 
mouth. The hair was colored in divers hues or 
was shaved off to accommodate wigs of various 
colors. Children blessed with fine heads of hair 
were lured away and shorn of their locks; even the 
grave was invaded and the dead robbed. The 
despotism of Elizabeth's rule and that of her suc- 
cessors culminated in revolution. The Puritans 



THE PEDIGREE OF THE CORSET. 



Ill 



made bitter warfare on " devilish fashions." No 
one can read the histoiy of those days without 
seeing that their opposition to the follies of dress 
was a sincere protest of the conscience, not the 
bitterness of political rivalry. Green says of the 
Puritan : " His life was orderly, methodical, sparing 




Court i if Queen Elizabeth. 



of diet and of self indulgence. The new sobriety 
marked itself even in his change of dress. The 
loss of color and variety in costume reflected, no 
doubt, ;i loss of color and variety in life itself; 
bat it was a loss compensated by solid gains. 



112 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

Greatest among these, perhaps, was the new con- 
ception of social equality. Their common call, 
their common brotherhood in Christ, annihilated 
in the mind of the Puritans that overpowering 
sense of social distinction which characterized the 
age of Elizabeth. The meanest peasant felt him- 
self ennobled as a child of God." 

The iconoclasm of the Puritans destroyed even 
art, which to them breathed of vanity. The women 
were forbidden to wear lace, jewels, or braided 
hair. Starch was denounced as " devil's liquor." 
The shorn head and the high, stiff hat of the 
Puritan had not the picturesque effect of curl- 
ing locks and plumed beavers. Scriptural texts 
do not make a graceful design for embroidery, but 
Puritan conscience and Puritan taste banished the 
wheel-farthingale and the stiff ruff, and increased 
the girth of the waist (Fig. 42). 

In an ideal republic we ought to find no ac- 
cumulations of wealth and no social distinctions, 
out of which frivolities of dress always issue. 
Poverty and devotion to the common good dis- 
tinguished that brave band which endured the 
hardships and perils of a New World in the name 
of liberty and freedom to worship God. As years 
passed, increasing wealth gave to the Tory element 



THE PEDIGREE OE THE CORSET 



US 



the power of a privileged class, and the social 
customs of the Old World were carefully reproduced 
in the New. The climax of frivolity, so far as the 
corset is concerned, was reached in the early part 
of this century. Goodman, of Boston, writing of 




From "The Art of Beauty."— Harper & Brothers. 

Fig. 4:.'.— Puritan La ly. 



the year 1829, speaks of " a not unusual practice 
of wearing the corset at night, tightening it when 
lying down and again in the morning when rising. 
The custom was imitated by servants, who wore 
such busks as to prevent sufficient stooping 01 



114 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

crouching to put on the kettle, or to place it on any 
lower level than a bench." We hear fabulous 
stories of the strength and endurance of our grand- 
mothers. There were doubtless grandmothers who 
could spin, brew, delve, and rear large families 
with a vigor unknown to the present generation. 
There were also grandmothers who wore very tight, 
scant gowns and very thin, narrow, high-heeled 
shoes. The corset of our grandmothers was 
made of stiff material and had busks of hickory- 
wood. The corsets of the present day are more 
flexible and therefore less objectionable ; yet their 
use is becoming more general. The cheapness of 
the corset puts it in the reach of every class, and 
the yearly consumption in America, not including 
those which are imported, amounts to 60,000,000. 
Never was the glove-fitting bodice, without wrinkle 
or crease, more imperatively demanded. We are 
informed of English girls who, at night, bind the 
body tightly with linen bandages several yards in 
length, that the figure may not lose the delicate 
proportions gained during the day. It is said that 
ultra-fashionable girls of America wear corsets at 
night. 

There has always been a marked difference be- 
tween the dress of the city and that of the country. 



THE PEDIGREE OF THE CORSET. 115 

TVhen folly has reigned at court, simplicity has 
characterized rustic life. The same contrast still 
prevails. In cities and large towns tight lacing is 
universal. The styles set by fashionable societ}- 
are carefully followed Iry the middle classes, the 
housemaid, and the scullion. In rural districts 
the lacing spirit is comparatively unknown. The 
corset gives a stiff but not often a deformed appear- 
ance to the figure. It is inevitable that lacing will 
increase in the country. The publication and cir- 
culation of journals of fashion, the education in 
tonus of conventional dress afforded by the influx 
of the city boarder, the opportunity which easy 
means of travelling give the villager to visit large 
towns, the zeal of the manufacturer in advertising 
and selling his wares, the technical education of 
the dressmaking craft — all tend to the steady in- 
crease of fashionable dress and to the tightening of 
the corset-lace. 

Our missionaries are carrying the lacing custom 
to benighted heathen lands. A missionary return- 
ing from India said: "The first thing which the 
Death en convert desires is, not a Bible, but a 
corset." The educated Indian squaw of our own 
land is born again into the kingdom of the corset 
and bustle. At a recent missionary meeting an 



116 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

Indian woman who had attempted the conversion 
of her people rehearsed the needs of her nation 
in a dress tight and stiff with a corset. The 
Africans, especially distinguished as imitators, 
copy with painful exaggerations the small waists 
of "quality folks." 

Shall we argue that because this is the most 
moral, intellectual, and Christian age which the 
world has yet seen, and the one that most univer- 
sally adopts the corset, therefore lacing is moral, 
respectable, artistic? On this ground we may 
argue the morality of alcohol, since no other age 
has consumed so much per capita. On this ground 
we may argue the morality of nicotine, whose use 
has never been so general, or of gambling, which 
is a national vice. These evils arc not the out- 
growth of a moral, intellectual, and Christian 
civilization, but the evidence that we have not 
applied the laws of Christian ethics to practical 
life. 

AYhat lesson does the history of the corset offer 
this generation '? Simply this : its general use is 
one of many indications that there has developed 
in our civilization a tendency to that luxurious 
living which is cursed by Heaven's decree. Tight 
lacing is the worst form of the fashionable dress, 




IN Wll.l.usn ll\[.l.. THE TKMI'I.E, CHICAGO, BY WALTER CRAKE. 

(From Hie Magazine of Art.) 



THE PEDIGREE OF THE CORSET. 117 

which always marks a period of selfish luxury and 
social oppression. And now, " while Tiffany is 
selling silver stewpans for millionaires to cook 
their breakfast in, thousands of women are com- 
pelled by competition to work fifteen hours a day for 
fifty cents." The strikes and labor agitations which 
follow in the wake of starvation wages and unjust 
competition will continue until, in the bitterness of 
the conflict, we are called back to an era of sim- 
plicity, justice, and brotherly love. Co-operation, 
not competition, should be the law of the industrial 
world. 

Another threatening cloud is the rapid increase 
of an alien population and the slow growth of our 
American people. Family cares are irksome to the 
pleasure loving American, just as they were to 
pleasure-loving Borne and pleasure loving France, 
and we are rapidly coming under the dominion of 
an uneducated, unsympathetic foreign power. 

Is the artistic feeling of this epoch at a low ebb? 
The present luxuriant efflorescence has been crush- 
ingly called "the renaissance of barbarism. ' 
"Chromo civilization," "greedy barbarism," "vul- 
gar display," "gingerbread aristocracy," are terms 
used fco represent the tinsel which has usurped the 
place of simple and genuine art. 



118 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

Is there a low state of public morals? The 
blunting of the moral perceptions is shown in 
our food adulteration, our business monopolies, the 
speculations of trade, our sweating systems, our 
political knavery. Moral leprosy is not confined 
to the masses ; it taints polite society and even 
lurks in the Church itself and among the eminently 
respectable. So keenly is the need of reform in 
this direction felt that societies like the White 
Cross Army are formed to train the conscience of 
our youth, and social purity is presented as a 
distinct department of ethical culture. 

Is the use of the corset inherently immoral ? The 
corset and the tailor-made waist, which boldly de- 
fine and exaggerate physical peculiarities, repel a 
refined sensibility. "When the skin-tight bodice 
first came into vogue, women shrunk from going in 
public thoroughfares without a shawl or wrap. 
Gradually they became habituated to the defining 
lines of corset and bodice. Could we look at the 
glove-fitting corset-waist with unaccustomed e} r es, 
we should share the " horrified surprise of the old- 
fashioned spinster when it was suggested that she 
might go out without a wrap : ' Would you have 
me go out in my figger ? ' " 

Again, the corset defies those great laws of health 



THE PEDIGREE OF THE CORSET. 119 

which the Creator has ordained for our well-being. 
When Christian women learn that the religion of 
the body is as sacred as that of the spirit, it will 
be considered a sacrilege to wear any form of 
dress which interferes with the ph} T sical economy. 

References. Bouvier's "Etudes Historiques et Medicales sur 
l'Usage des Corsets;" " Fashions in Waists," by Richard Heath, 
published in the Magazine of Art; Mrs. Stone's "Chronicles of 
Fashion ;" ' ' Strult on English Dress;" " Le Costume Historique, " 
Raciuet. 



CHAPTER IX. 

UNCONSCIOUS SUICIDE. 

" Evil is wrought by want of thought 
As well as want of heart. " — Hood. 

" My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge/'— Hosea. 

With all this accumulation of evidence con- 
cerning the injury done by the corset, no woman 
has ever been found willing to acknowledge 
undue pressure. Physicians who have had years 
of professional experience with corset -wearers 
declare that they have never heard an admission of 
lacing. Women whose diminutive waists, elevated 
shoulders, and ample abdomen tell the story of 
corset-compression, and whose labored breath is 
seen in the violent heaving of the chest, lift up holy 
hands of horror against the practice. Very good 
women wear very tight clothing without being 
conscious of offence. 

We cannot doubt that many women are conscien- 

120 



UNCONSCIOUS SUICIDE. 121 

tious in their protestations of innocence. Self- 
deception is always easy, but in the case of tight 
clothing there are many facts which render it par- 
ticularly easy. Compression usually begins in 
childhood, w ben the bones are pliable, and the 
contraction is so gradual as to be imperceptible. 

The muscles of the waist become so weakened by 
disuse that they are unable to sustain the body 
without help, and a corset is more comfortable 
because it affords a means of support to the en- 
feebled muscles. 

The contents of the body are gases, fluids, and 
yielding substances, which can be displaced for a 
moment, by effort, and the clothing may seem loose 
when the breath is held in. 

Nature has no mercy for the transgressor even 
though he may be ignorant of wrong-doing. Un- 
conscious suicide is no less fatal than that of 
deliberate purpose. The invisible microbes of 
sewer-gas poison as fatally as though they were 
perceptible to the sense. The injury of tight cloth- 
ing is just as great to the woman unconscious of 
pressure as to the poor fool who draws her strings 
by the bedpost. The "loose corset "is the great 
hindrance to the abolishment of this article of dress. 

It is the means by which the devil transforms, bim- 



122 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN 

self into an angel of light. The corset-curse among 
women is more insidious than the drink-curse 
among men. Both sins seek to extenuate them- 
selves on the plea of moderation. No woman is 
able to see the hidden line where moderate lacing 
develops into tight lacing ; just as no man can see 
where moderate drinking becomes hard drinking. 
Total abstinence from both sins is the only safe 
ground. A woman can no more be trusted with a 
corset than a drunkard with a glass of whiskey. 

Two classes of women are represented among 
those who unconsciously wear too tight clothing. 
One class is blind because it will not see. For this 
class there is no he]}). A spirit of teachableness 
and dispassionate research is absolutely necessary 
to progress in every direction. The I-thank-Thee- 
that-I-am-not-as-other-men spirit is opposed to 
enlightenment. 

For those who are in " honest doubt " there are 
many infallible tests by which it can be ascertained 
if the form has been altered or if the clothing 
is too tight. The pressure of the clothing carvnxfl 
be ascertained by comparing the measurements of 
the body with and without the corset, for — 

(a) The corset is made of thick, bulk;/ material 
and takes up several inches of space. It is worn by 



UNCONSCIOUS SUICIDE. 



123 



the excessively thin for the very purpose of making 
the figure larger. 

(b) The fact that the corset-string is " never 
drawn " proves nothing. The corset may be several 
inches too small when the lace is not touched. 
The clothing may be too tight when no corset is 
worn. 

(c) The feeling of the wearer cannot be trusted 
to give the criterion of pressure. The same amount 
of pressure is not equally injurious to all. In some 
the bones are strong and give greater resistance, 
or the organs are less predisposed to displacement 
and disease. 

(//) The fact that the hand can be thrust up 
.between the corset and the body, or that one can 
squirm " and " turn around " in these articles, is 
10 criterion. " Woman is the prodigy of contrac- 
tu : with her stays bisecting her and lacerating 
ier skin, she can for a moment make herself feel 
*laek." The hand can be readily placed under a 
tight corset when the diaphragm is relaxed and 
te air is expelled from the lungs. 
Those who honestly desire to ascertain whether 
the clothing is tight or loose should undertake the 
ivestigation with absolute sincerity. Examine the 
method of breathing: is there violent and quick 



124 THE WELL DRESSED WOMAN. 

motion of the chest? Find out the location of the 
diaphragm : has it any action ? If the chest-breath- 
ing is violent and the diaphragm inactive, the 
clothing is too tight. Do not be deceived in the 
action of the diaphragm. It ma}- be possible for 
you to force the action of the abdomen while 
the diaphragm is torpid. It is possible to move the 
abdominal muscles even while holding the breath. 

Is your clothing so loose that the lower part of 
the chest can be as thoroughly expanded with the 
clothing on as when the garments are removed at 
night ? If not, it is too tight. 

Do you, in lying down for a few moments of rest, 
find it more agreeable to unfasten the clothing 
about the waist? Is it easier to put on your 
bonnet and veil before putting on the bodice of 
your dress ? The clothing is too tight. 

Can you, by taking a deep inspiration, expand the 
chest more than one quarter or one half an inch ? 
You ought to be able to expand it from three to 
live inches. " A young woman who was formerly 
addicted to tight lacing, after laying aside her corset 
and cultivating breathing for two years, was able 
to expand her waist six and one-half inches. A 
woman whose usual dress will not allow her to 
expand her waist to at least three inches is un- 




This study is for the benefit <>f the round-shouldered, and every convention- 
ally dressed woman is more or less round-shouldered. Drapery falling from 
tli<' point indicated in the illustration lessens the appearance <>f spinal curva- 
ture. The model mav serve as a basis for varied applications. 



UNCONSCIOUS SUICIDE 125 

questionably suffering injury from the restriction 
of her respiration."* 

Dr. Mary Wood-Allen gives these tests : can 
you, while the lungs are fully inflated, fasten the 
dress with one hand ? The circumference of the 
waist should measure two fifths of the height. 

The only way in which we can be made conscious 
of the power of a habit is to attempt to break from 
it. Lay aside the corset. Do you feel the need of 
its support? Do you feel like falling to pieces? 
Then your corsets were too tight. The muscles are 
atrophied from disuse. There is no more reason 
for a woman to need the support of a corset than 
for a man to need it. The Creator has made the 
female frame of the lower animals capable of self- 
support. It is unreasonable to believe that His 
beneficent plan of self-support excludes only civil- 
ized women. 

Many women say, in vindication of the corset, 
"My physician recommended it." These are al- 
ways abnormal cases in which the invalid was 
recommended to use the corset as a kind of 
bandage. There is no record of an invalid man 
recommended by his physician to resort to the 
corset as a bandage. With all respect to the 
medical profession, we must admit that there is 



Dr. .1. II. Kellogg. 



126 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

general apathy among physicians on the subject 
of woman's dress. This apathy may result from 
ignorance. Investigations on the injury of tight 
clothing are very recent, and all physicians do not 
keep up with the times. They go on in the old 
stereotyped way. The indifference of physicians 
may be also a matter of policy. The fair patient 
would be quite infuriated at the mention of tight 
corsets. Advice would be idle and expensive. 
Physicians cannot afford, by useless honesty, to 
lose their best customers. We may expect that 
physicians will give greater attention to the sub- 
ject, as the investigations of science make its evils 
apparent. Many physicians absolutely refuse to 
undertake the case of a patient who will not 
change her method of dress. A leading physician 
of New York gives careful direction as to the 
clothing of his patients. 

Much mischief is done through the false teaching 
that a corset or belt is necessary for support, 
especially for women engaged in heavy housework. 
It is argued that men use a bandage for the pur- 
pose of support in running and performing athletic 
feats. Concerning this fallacy that a belt gives 
support we quote from Dr. Benjamin Ward 
Eichardson, an eminent English physician. He 



UNCONSCIOUS SUICIDE. 127 

says: "Boys who are about to run in races or to 
leap, put on the belt and strap it tightly, in order, 
as they say, to hold in their wind or breath. 
Workmen who are about to lift weights or carry 
heavy burdens put on a belt for the same purpose, 
their declaration being that it gives support. Act- 
ually there is not a figment of truth in this belief. 
It is the expression of a fashion, and nothing more. 
The belt impedes respiration, compresses the ab- 
dominal muscles, compresses the muscles of the 
back, subjecting them to unnecessary friction, and 
actually impedes motion. No boy would think of 
putting a belt tightly round the body of his pony if 
he wished it to win a race or to leap a hurdle ; no 
workingman would put a belt tightly round the 
body of a horse to make it pull with greater facility 
a load which it was drawing. I had a workman 
once in my employ who would undertake no vigor- 
ous effort until he had tightened his belt. Once I 
got liim to test what he could lift with and without 
the belt, and he was obliged himself to admit that 
he could do more without it than with it. That is 
what ladies say about corsets." Dr. liichardson 
further says that the use of the belt among men is 
a frequent cause of hernia or rupture : " I have seen 
professionally several instances of this occurrence 



128 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

iii boys and among workmen who wear belts ; this 
accidental disease is so common that it is the rule 
rather than the exception to find it present." 

In the matter of improved clothing for women 
we need the sympathy and co-operation of men. 
A women may be deterred from adopting rational 
dress because a husband, brother, or son " wants 
her to look like other ladies." 

Speak to a man on this subject : he smiles con- 
descendingly and says, " Woman's dress ? Yes, I am 
interested in that," and he makes a facetious com 
ment on dressmakers' bills and the pocket-book. 
O fools and blind! if it were only through the 
paltry dollar that woman's dress concerns man we 
would not attempt to iterate and reiterate the 
hackneyed theme. Woman's dress touches man 
more vitally than through the pocket-book. It 
concerns his muscle, his sinew, his blood, his 
brain. The physical degeneracy of woman is re- 
produced in her sons as well as in her daughters. 

" The woman's cause is man's: they rise or sink 
Together, dwarfed or godlike, bond or free." 



CHAPTEE X. 

PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 

' ' Deep - rooted customs, though wrong, are not easily 
altered ; but it is the duty of all to be firm in that which they 
certainly know is right for them."— John Woolman. 

" Hurt not your conscience with any known sin." 

— 8. Rutherford. 

It is useless to condemn the evils of modern 
dress unless we can suggest away to correct them. 
'In this practical phase of the subject much earnest 
thought has been given during the last twenty 
years. Individual attempts to improve dress were 
made long before organized effort took the matter 
in hand. Of all dress-protestants none have been 
more heroic than the Bloomers. Their costume met 
onl}' partially the demands of hygiene and utterly 
ignored the laws of beauty, and has made the sub- 
ject of rational dress a byword and a hissing. 
Yet we cannot say that the Bloomer episode has 

been without beneficent results. Every reform has 

129 



130 THE WELL DRESSED WOMAN. 

been marked by periods of apparent failure, and 
through failure comes the practical experience 
which is necessary before success can be achieved. 
The Bloomer episode called universal attention to 
the great need of rational dress, and it showed that 
changes must be made in such a way as to do no 
violence to the prejudices of society. It is now 
understood that radical changes must begin with 
the " foundation garments," which are purely utili- 
tarian, and that gowns must be constructed on ar- 
tistic principles : these are never at variance with 
hygienic principles. 

Inspired by an address from Miss Elizabeth 
Stuart Phelps, the New England Woman's Club 
in 1S73 made the first permanent step towards 
improved dress. A committee from this club was 
appointed to consider the errors of dress and to 
devise methods by which they might be overcome. 
The committee advocated an entire reconstruction of 
underclothing ; it believed that the time would come 
when radical changes could be made also in the ex- 
ternals of dress, but that for the present there 
should be only a modification of prevailing customs. 
Lectures by well-known and experienced female 
physicians were given under the auspices of the 
association, and underclothing constructed in ac- 



PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 131 

cordance with hygienic principles was made and 
sold. As a substitute for the corset the asso- 
ciation offered health waists which fit over the 
shoulders and fasten in front with buttons. 
Nether garments were set on yokes instead of 
bands, and fastened to the waist, below the so- 
called waist-line, by means of buttons. The ad- 
vantage of yokes over bands lies in the fact that the 
yoke fits over and rests on the hip-bones. There is 
therefore no cutting of bands and no pressure on 
the pelvic organs. This system of clothing com- 
mended itself to the good sense of the more intelli- 
gent ; and conservative women of the present time, 
who are unwilling to make more radical changes, 
find in it a convenient and reasonable solution of 
difficulties. The interest aroused by the New Eng- 
land Club has been steadily increasing with every 
year. There is now no large city in America which 
has not its depot for modern underclothing. The 
Woman's Christian Temperance Union and other 
philanthropic associations give the subject an im- 
portant place in their work. Chautauqua, the edu- 
cator of tin' masses, includes it in her lecture- 
courses. The press commends or denounces ac- 
cording to the light of the compiler. Woman's 
clubs have been organized, in various parts of 



132 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAJS, 

the country, whose sole purpose is the promotion 
of physical culture and correct dress. 

For an intelligent understanding of rational cloth- 
ing it is necessary to know the principles which 
govern hygienic dress and the methods by which 
its requirements may be realized. The object is 
to sheathe the body in such a way as to avoid 
pressure and give muscular freedom, to secure 
equal distribution of weight and heat, and. in cold 
climates, to get the maximum of warmth with the 
minimum of weight. The first step to be taken is 
the abolishment of the corset. This is the most ob- 
jectionable feature of civilized dress, and one which 
lies at the foundation of other errors. The removal 
of the corset means more than giving up articles 
which bear that name. It means the removal of 
every waist and waist-band which restricts the free 
action of any organ of the body. We must not be 
deceived by the misnamed " health corset," nor by 
the beguiling " Delsartean corset ;" a health corset 
is impossible, and to associate the noble name of 
Delsarte with a garment of this kind is simply a 
base travesty of our modern system of advertising. 
The corset includes also the thick, heavily corded 
waists which are worn by young girls ; they are 
incipient corsets. A woman may be " laced " iD 



PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 133 

fact though not in name, when she does not wear 
corsets. The bodice, snugly fitted and thoroughly 
boned, has the same effect, both in appearance and 
in result, as that produced by the glove-fitting corset. 
" Well-made dresses " contain quite as many or 
even more bones than a corSet ; the only advantage 
over this instrument is in the absence of the steel. 
These gowns are often so tight that a buttoner is 
required to fasten the bodice. The danger of whale- 
bones is subtle. They interfere with the flexible 
movement of the waist, and anything that inter- 
feres with graceful movement, which is easy move- 
ment, is unhygienic. The only sure foundation is 
reached when we recognize the beauty of a supple 
body. When this is seen, any lingering penchant 
for a whalebone will be entirely removed. The 
destruction of the corset must go to the roots, 
branch, and remotest twig. If so much as a mustard- 
seed remain, it will grow again. 

Next, in order of injury are long, heavy skirts 
;iiid the tight bands by which they are hung to the 
body. The weight of ordinary dress-skirts, with fac- 
ings, linings, stifi'enings, draperies, and trimmings, 
amounts to many pounds. A bead-trimmed gown, 
weighed for ,i reporter, "exceeded the maximum of 
tluit allowed our soldiers in the late war, their 



134 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

accoutrements, ammunition, and all." Besides the 
dress-skirt there is the weight of starched and 
flannel petticoats, which must be pushed forward 
and dragged from behind with every advancing 
step. A large amount of vital force is exhausted 
in the mere effort of carrying this load, and every 
activity of life is made difficult. Skirts should be 
modified or abolished, as will be described here- 
after. 

Sanitarians have been divided as to how much 
of the weight of clothing should be borne by 
the shoulders, and how much by the pelvic bones. 
It is now taught that there should be very little 
weight to carry, and that this weight should be 
distributed over the entire body. The shoulders 
bear their part, the arms bear their part, the sides, 
hips, and legs their part. In abnormal cases, 
where there is weakness of lungs and spine, the 
greater weight must sometimes be put on the 
pelvic bones ; and when the organs of the pelvis are 
weak, the shoulders must take the greater burden. 
These are, however, exceptional cases. On the 
matter of uniform support there must be no com- 
promise. Shoulder-straps are a compromise. They 
concentrate the weight of clothing on the shoul- 
ders, pull them over, and contract the chest. Sus- 




DESIGN FOR ITOrSE OR STREET DRESS. 

The characteristic feature is the parallel ism of the lines of the neck and 
ginlle. The sleeves follow the lines of the waist. 



PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 135 

penders are an objectionable feature in the cloth- 
ing of men ; yet shoulder-straps cannot with skirts 
serve the purpose which suspenders do with trous- 
ers, because trousers are partially supported by the 
legs and consequently less weight comes on the 
.shoulders. Neither is there any way of fastening 
skirts to the bodice by " large hooks and eyes," 
as mantua-inakers would have us believe. Uniform 
support can only be secured by having nether 
garments continuous with upper garments. 

The hrst garment to be worn is the " union 
suit," of elastic weave, which the market furnishes 
in every grade, texture, and price. The union suit 
reaches from neck to ankle, clothing each leg sepa- 
rately, and clings to the body while giving with 
its movements. If greater warmth is required, a 
woven vest may be worn over the combination suit, 
in lieu of a waist, and knee or ankle-length eques- 
trians may be added to the nether garments. The 
color is a matter of individual fancy. AYhite, or 
the natural color of the wool, is more wholesome 
for the garment which comes next to the body. 
Black is less conspicuous, and for this reason is 
usually preferred for the outer garment. There 
are several advantages in woveu garments: the 
clinging quality helps to keep them in place; their 



136 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

elasticity prevents any stiffness in the movements 
of the body ; there is no weight of unnecessary 
material ; there is no annoyance and fatigue in 
having garments cut and made at home ; there are 
no ethical difficulties about buying ready-made 
clothing. 

In the mechanical adaptation of rational under- 
clothing it is not possible to prescribe any regula- 
tion method which shall in every particular meet 
the taste and need of every individual. Common- 
sense must be used, and minor changes be made to 
suit the idios} 7 ncrasies of the wearer. If the need 
of firmer support is felt than can be obtained from 
woven garments, we have the Flynt, Bates, Equi- 
poise, and Emancipation waists. They should 
always be used without whalebones, and so loose 
as to allow the fullest respiration. Others prefer 
to wear over the union suit a combination of waist 
and drawers like the Bates chemiloon or the Jen- 
ness Miller chemilette. All these garments em- 
body the principles of correct dress. 

It is sometimes asserted that petticoats are 
abolished by the modern dress-crusader. As 
warmth giving garments they are abolished. The 
flannel petticoat of sacred memory, the balmoral, 
and the starched muslin petticoat are not now 



PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 137 

recognized. So long, however, as women wear 
gowns, something of the nature of a petticoat must 
be worn. The skirt of a gown cannot be lined 
without violating aesthetic principles, and without a 
lining some kind of foundation is necessary. 

Various garments are substituted for the old 
form of petticoat. Mrs. Jenness Miller advocates 
the divided skirt, which resembles full Turkish 
drawers. It has the appearance of a petticoat, but, 
as each leg is clothed separately, it does not re- 
quire to be held up, like the petticoat, and is not 
so easily bedraggled. Mrs. Miller also advocates the 
gown form ; this is a lining cut after the princess 
style, to which the gown is attached. Others 
wear the dress form ; this is a skirt attached 
to a sleeveless waist. These garments should be 
made invariably of light-weight material, and so 
short as to escape mud and dirt. Many modifica- 
tions can be made in the gown. Materials of 
heavy weight, deep facings, canvas interlinings, and 
elaborate draperies should be carefully avoided. 
The skirt and waist of the gown should be in one 
piece, or, if separate, the skirt should be sewed to 
a sleeveless lining. 

The question of supporting the Lose is really 
tin- most difficult problem of rational dress. A 



138 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

garter of any material, tight enough to keep the 
stocking snugly in place, interferes seriously with 
the circulation of the blood. A harness worn on 
the shoulders distorts the shoulders and contracts 
the chest. Side-straps fastened to a waist cause 
a perceptible traction. The only entirely satis- 
factory method is to have stockings and drawers 
woven so that they are continuous. This effect 
can be approximated by sewing the hose to the 
knee-length equestrian or to the trouser. Others 
wear boys' socks in place of long hose. Again, 
stockings worn over wool underclothing are par- 
tially sustained by their clinging quality and often 
require no support, or a safety-pin attaching them 
to the union suit is sufficient. The least objection- 
able garter is the duplex spiral spring. 

There is great prejudice on the part of women 
about adopting bifurcated underclothing. It seems 
a prerogative of the sterner sex. The distinction of 
" trousered and untrousered " as differentiating sex 
is, however, comparatively recent. Originally both 
men and women wore skirts, and the}' are still worn 
by men of the Orient. The adoption of close fitting 
" breechen " met with great condemnation in Eng- 
land, and was even a subject of legislation. It is 
to be hoped that the prejudice against divided 



PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 139 

underclothing mar be in time overcome. The fact 
that it is used by female equestrians and bicyclists 
ought to disarm prejudice. The advantages are 
so obvious that they hardly need recapitulation : the 
weight and clumsiness of petticoats is avoided ; 
perfect freedom of movement is gained ; there is 
less exposure to cold and dampness ; and the dra- 
peries of the gown fall more gracefully. Less cloth- 
ing is required in rational dress, because the 
circulation of the blood is unimpeded and the dis- 
tribution of clothing is uniform, because its freedom 
permits the exercise necessary for the manufacture 
of internal heat, and because its looseness allows 
the aeration of the garments and of the surface of 
the body. We should also understand that the 
warmth of the clothing does not depend upon the 
thickness or weight of material. The warmest 
clothes are obtained from "light, loose, porous tis- 
sues, having a capacity to retain in the spaces be- 
tween their fibres a large quantity of air. It is an 
essential condition of a good garment that it shall 
nut interpose an obstacle to ventilation." 

The innovations suggested in the present move- 
ment may seem ultra to those who do not feel their 
Deed. Nothing seems extreme when we feel its 
lightness. Many questions arise ;is to the practical 



140 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

difficulties in adopting bifurcated underclothing 
and discarding corsets. We venture to answer 
some of the questions which suggest themselves. 

Question. In clothing each leg separately is the 
secret of woman's bipedal anatomy revealed? 

Answer. No ; there is sufficient drapery to keep up 
this important illusion. 

Q. Is not the outline of the leg denned in the 
systems described ? 

A. No; it is far less conspicuous than with the 
drawn-back skirts which were worn a few years since. 

Q. Do not the skirts sink in about the ankles 
when petticoats are not used? 

A. The dress certainly does not stand out as 
prominently as when stiff petticoats are used. This 
is an improvement in the appearance of the gown, 
which, artistically considered, should follow the line 
of the body. 

Q. Is not the white skirt a neat and dainty part 
of feminine toilet ? 

A. No ; it is heavy and easily soiled ; when 
starched it is stiff and utterly inartistic. 

Q. Shall I not be too cold in modern undercloth- 
ing ? 

A. Gauge the quality and number of the garments 
bv the need of the climate. 



PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 141 

Q. Shall I be too warm ? 

A. By lightening the quality and lessening the 
number you can be dressed as cool as you please. 

Q. I am very stout ; I should look untidy without 
the support of the corset. 

A. The weakness of the breast muscles has come 
through the use of the corset. If you are not will- 
ing to reduce flesh by exercise and proper food, and 
to sustain yourself by normal effort, then support 
the bust from the shoulders by a boneless waist. 

Q. I am very stout ; I should look like a tub with- 
out a corset. 

A. It is no worse to look like a tub than an hour- 
glass. You will move more easily, and therefore 
your size will be less apparent, if your clothing is 
loose. Of two evils choose the less. Obesity can 
never be made becoming ; if it cannot be overcome, 
it must be accepted as one accepts other physical 
deformities. 

Q. I am very thin ; would it not be better to wear 
corsets and starched petticoats in order to fill out 
deficiencies V 

A. No; the corset would make the appearance still 
more angular, and starched petticoats are opposed 
to every law of art. 



142 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

Q. Does the tailor-made dress look well without 
bones or corset? 

A. No ; a bodice made on the plan of a corset 
requires a corset underneath. "With or without stays 
the tailor-made gown is an abomination. Another 
style of dress is necessitated. 

The usual objection brought against rational dress 
is on the score of economy. The combination suit 
is a little more expensive than those in which 
drawers and vest are sold separately. When drastic 
economy is necessary, the same effect can be pro- 
duced by joining drawers and vest. A pair of scis- 
sors, needle, and thread are the only requisites. 
Equestrian drawers range from $1.75 to $9 in price. 
These also can be made at home, if necessary. They 
can be made of flannel or cloth, and should be fulled 
over the knee to avoid strain. There is a deal of 
thoughtlessness in this cry of economy. It often 
comes from those who do not blink at corset-covers 
and petticoats trimmed with costly lace and em- 
broideries. Requiring fewer garments, and these 
being more easy to launder, the actual exj)ense is 
not greater than in the established method. "Were 
it more expensive, the time, doctor's bills, and 
hospital treatment saved through rational dress 
would more than compensate therefor. 



PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 143 

Whether more radical changes will ever be made 
in the externals of dress it is not possible to foretell. 
" What is the ideal dress ? " " What will be the 
dress of the coming woman?" is seriously asked. 
From an artistic point of view it is probable that 
draperies will be always preferred for house-dress. 
Women do not covet the stiff pantaloonery of mas- 
culine attire, yet dress naturally conforms itself to 
the necessities of occupation. The fact that women 
are more and more admitted to professional and 
business life, requiring regular attendance in all 
kinds of weather ; the fact, also, that there is a grow, 
ing interest in physical development — suggest that 
a costume should be devised which will make ex- 
posure to inclement weather less perilous and 
movement less restricted. Whether this can be ac- 
complished by simply shortening the dress-skirt, or 
whether woman's dress Avill evolve as man's dress 
has evolved, are questions which time will decide. 
A contributor to the Daily Neivs is of the opinion 
that " the dress of the twentieth century will em- 
phasize distinctions of occupation, not distinctions 
of sex." 

The emancipation of woman from the evils of 
conventional dress is no longer left to a few brave 
souls to fight single handed. 'The work has as- 



144 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

sumed definite proportions and taken on the dignity 
of organized effort. The National Council of 
Women of the United States, at a meeting in Wash- 
ington in 1891, appointed a committee to consider 
the subject and devise a suitable costume. There 
has been some misconception of the aim of the 
Council regarding this work, some believing that 
"a business suit" would foster class distinctions, 
others alleging that women would be put into a 
species of uniform. The President of the Council, 
Mrs. Wright Sewall, says concerning the first objec- 
tion : " The Executive Committee of the Council 
does not recognize any arbitrary division of women 
into two classes — business women and society 
women ; all noble women, whatever degree of 
material luxury and ease their situation in life may 
afford, do, at the present time, devote many hours 
daily to the superintendence of domestic affairs, to 
the ministrations of charity, or to some other ser- 
vice in which the conventional dress is an obstruc- 
tion ; and all business women, whether in or out of 
domestic life, whether rich or poor, have occasional 
leisure for society." The intention of the Council 
is summed up in the following resolution framed 
by its Executive Committee. 

Resolved, That the National Council of Women of 



The new gymnastic suit is used in our best gymnasiums because of its ligh 
ness and safety. It is mock-modesty which compels woman to conceal the 9 
that she is two-legged. The legs should be as free as the arms. The new 
gymnastic suit shows that as women receive the higher education they are 
willing to adopt a style of dress suited to their work. We recall the case of a 
scientifically trained city girl who took upon herself the cares of a farmer's 




THK NEW GYMNASTIC SUIT. 



wife. This gifted woman, an accomplished musician and a trained Shake- 
spearian reader, donned the gymnastic suit of the school-room for the varied 
duties of the morning. We have seen her going thus equipped through the 
dewy grass to the milk-yard and garden, with no fear of wet skirts ; free to 
carry butter and eggs up the cellar-stairs with no danger of tripping on unnecflj 
sary drapery. This woman solved the problem of "dress and occupation" for 
herself; and is it not 3 wise solution for others also? 




AFTER THE SYRIAN DKE88 ADOPTED BY THE ENGLISH RATIONAL DRESS 



ill I VI II IN. 



The Syrian skirt is gathered a1 the bottom, and fchisfnllness is caught up 
an.i.nd each leg and fastened to a lining of drawers. I he skirl should not he 
so full as .- be heavy or baggy. The blouse waist may be worn with or with- 
out the jackel or another form of coat may I.e. substituted. 



PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 145 

the United Stated, through its Committee ou Dress, 
will continue to work toward the evolution of a 
comfortable dress for women, suitable for business 
hours, for shopping, for marketing, house work, 
walking, and other forms of exercise. The council 
neither recommends nor desires that this dress be 
a uniform, and it believes that a dress suitable to 
business hours would be much more susceptible to 
the modifications necessary to adapt it to different 
women and types of women, than is the present 
conventional dress." 

The average American is a busy woman. She is a 
housewife, a mother, a teacher, a shop-girl, a profes- 
sional worker. Rejoicing in the spheres of useful- 
ness open to her, she ought to dress so that her duties 
can lie performed with strength and ease. The 
average woman wants, for working hours, a costume 
so short as to escape dirt and dampness; one that 
allows muscular freedom ; one that does not tax 
the vitality by unnecessary weight and drapery; 

One that can be easily made, quickly put on and 

taken off. The Committee acting for the National 
Council have given this subject careful study. 
Their report has bees presented l" ami accepted 
by the Executive Board. They recommend the 



146 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

Syrian costume adopted by the English Society 
for Rational Dress, the short-skirted gown with 
leggins, and the new gymnastic suit as the basis of 
an every-day dress for business and work. With 
these as a basis individual taste may vary the 
details, just as it has varied the details of conven- 
tional dress. Costumes of this kind have been 
already adopted by the mountain tourist, and it is 
reasonable to hope that what is womanly for the 
carefully -guarded Oriental may be tolerated by the 
progressive American. In a skirt falling just below 
the knee the school-girl, the teacher, the business 
woman, the pedestrian could pursue her way with 
ease and comfort. 

And why should not the gymnastic suit, which 
has a place of honor in the school-room, have also 
a place of honor in the home ? It is the only cos- 
tume which is convenient for domestic work, there- 
fore it is becoming. In these days when women 
are clamoring for rights, we claim the right to com- 
fortable clothes. We claim the right not to make 
butterflies and poppinjays of ourselves. Under the 
leadership of intelligent and true-hearted women 
let us, by a united effort, free ourselves from the 
thraldom of swaddling-clothes. We need only 




wc^um 



COXVEXTIONAL MODESTY. 



The costume represented here embodies the principles advocated by the 
Committee acting for the National Council of Women. It therefore de 
mands an unprejudiced consideration. The skirt falls just below the knee 
and is met at this point by the gaiter of the same material, or the Polish boot. 
A skirt of this length is less burdensome and not as easily soiled or wet as one 
which simply clears the ground. The artists say that this is the more graceful 




TIIK BHOKT W VI KINC I.TtKSS. 



length, and w<- believe that, on the whole, it is also the more modest. It 
relieves us from those unsightly spectacles which are continually witnessed on 
Btormy days al bad crossings, in climbing in and oul of conveyances, etc. If 
this short skirl were the fashion there would be qo cry of impropriety. With 

the* COTted action Of intelligent women we may liave a costume eon forming 

to the laws of health, convenience, and beauty. 



PR A CTICA L 8 UG GES TIONB. 147 

unity of purpose to make a general and permanent 
emancipation. 

In concluding the suggestions concerning hygi- 
enic clothing, it seems important to call atten- 
tion to our inhumane methods of dressing infants. 
This subject has been ably discussed by Dr. L. C. 
Grosvenor in Babyhood, June, 1886. 

Dr. Grosvenor comments thus on the conven- 
tional infant wardrobe : in the first place there is 
a little bandage to go two or three times around 
the body over the navel dressing, and to be pinned 
with four pins ; and you know it is customary to 
wear this until the child goes into short clothes, or 
even through the second summer. Now, the 
Creator has made the abdominal wall elastic for a 
purpose — to accommodate itself to the varying con- 
ditions of the child's digestion. If it has a full 
meal the wall is large enough, and if it has eaten 
little it is none too large. If there is wind in the 
bowels the abdomen distends and gives it room till 
it can find its way through sixteen feet of convo- 
luted intestine. The bandage destroys all this 
elasticity and defeats the Creator's plans in the 
matter. Hut, say the old ladies, we must put on a 
bandage and put it on snugly, or the baby will be 
ruptured or big-bellied, and all out of shape. Non- 



148 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

sense ! Nature does not do her work in such a 
careless way. When the infant cries lustily this 
elastic wall distends evenly in all directions, and 
if not bandaged seldom ruptures. It is the band- 
aged babies who rupture. 

Let us see ; the baud was well applied in the 
morning, but, in the constant motion so character- 
istic to the yoirug of all auimals, it is partially dis- 
placed, compressing a portion of the abdomen, but 
exposing the umbilicus, which now has to take the 
whole pressure, and bursts, and we have an um- 
bilical hernia. But, says the grandmother or 
nurse, I do not apply the band in any such care- 
less way. I adjust it evenly and put in four pins, 
the lower one through the diaper to hold it down. 
What happens now ? The child cries, and the 
chance of distention being gone, it ruptures into 
the scrotum if a boy, or in the femoral region if a 
girl — surely not a very desirable condition. 

No ; I would dress the navel with a pad of ab- 
sorbent cotton and a light band held by two pins, 
just enough to retain the naval dressing, and dis- 
card the band when the navel dressing comes oft'. 
I have seen only one ruptured baby in twenty 
years among the unbandaged." 

Dr. Grosvenor considers the pinning blanket 



PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 149 

" one of the most uncomfortable and unhealthy 
garments ever invented. Let us see. The chest- 
wall is made to expand at every inspiration and 
expiration. The ribs do not pass around the body 
like a barrel-hoop, but curve downward and up- 
ward from the sternum to the spine in such a way 
as to favor this expansion and contraction ; and Ave 
put on this pinning blanket, whose band is made 
of inelastic material, close up under the arms, and 
pin snugly— over two fingers is the old rule — and 
so spoil all the expansive power of the chest during 
the first weeks and months of the infant life. We 
forget that within these thoracic walls are great 
vital organs which, during these beginnings of life, 
should have free play. But I have another indict- 
ment against this absurd pinning blanket. One 
side is folded over one limb and the other over the 
other, and then the, bottom is folded upon the 
thighs and pinned so that the little one cannot 
move ;i liml>; at which it cries, and we say Colic, 
and commence to dose it. 

"After this comes the skirt, which has the same 
objection as the pinning blanket- tightness about 
the chest. Another objection I bave to nil these, 

that they clothe tlie chest warmly and leave Hie 

shoulders with only a, slishl covering— the dress." 



150 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

The suit invented by Dr. Grosvenor, known as the 
Gertrude Baby Suit, is entirely free from all these 
objections. The undergarment is cut after a prin- 
cess pattern, reaching from the neck to ten inches 
below the feet, with sleeves w 7 hich come to the 
wrists, having all the seams smooth and the hems 
at neck, wrist, and bottom on the outside. The 
next garment is also cut princess, made by the 
same pattern, but without sleeves, and with a gen- 
erous armhole. These garments are slipped to- 
gether before dressing — sleeve within sleeve — and 
are put on over the head at once and buttoned 
behind. The most desirable material for the 
undergarments of an infant is Jaeger all-wool 
stockinet, of soft texture. For those who cannot 
afford the stockinet, Dr. Grosvenor recommends a 
choice, medium-weight cotton flannel, because it is 
soft, fleecy, warm, and unirritating, and when prop- 
erly washed retains these qualities more than any 
other goods. The same suit, the Arnold Knitted 
Garments, woven of antisejDtic material, can be 
purchased at our leading dry-goods houses. 



CHAPTEE XI. 

HYGIENE AND DRESS OF THE FEET. 

" Shoemakers should be treated as pirates and put to death 
without trial or mercy, as they inflict more suffering on man- 
kind than any other class." — Lord Palmerston. 

No part of the body excites more wonder and ad- 
miration than the foot— twenty-eight bones and 
joints, with numerous muscles, blood-vessels, and 
nerves ; all these fitted together, in the space of a 
few inches, so as to sustain an upright body and to 
propel it with perfect ease. Aside from adapt- 
ability, the human foot, in its normal condition, is 
a thing <>f beaut)', but it is so distorted through 
errors of dress, that this beauty is seldom seen. 
The artist's models are taken from the young child 
.tiiil tie- barefoot peasant. 

The normal foot approaches the form of the 
rll ipse. (See Pigs. V.) and 44.) The toes are slightly 
separated, ami the breadth through them is a little 

greater than through the ball. The contour is that 

151 



152 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 







Fig. 43.— Normal Foot (Pop. Sci. Mo., Appleton). 




HYGIENE AND DRESS OF THE FEET. 153 

of an ever-varying, delicately increasing line from 
heel to toe. In standing the weight of the body 
comes on the arch, of which the ball of the great 
toe and the heel are haunches, the principal weight 
being on the ball. In walking the body is propelled 
forward by the muscles of the great toe. The 
spread of the small toes increases the breadth of 
the foot and thus adds to the firmness of the sup- 
port and the grasp on the surface. The walking- 
axis of the foot passes through the middle of the 
heel, the great-toe joint, and the great toe, as seen in 
Fig. 45. That this is not the axis of ordinary walk- 



ing is proved by the fact that the sole of the boot 
docs not often wear evenly. The heel is usually 
run over on the outside, indicating a transfer of the 
walking axis t<> the outside of the foot, the weight 
principally on the heel. 

Fig. 4l> shows ;i common shape of the foot pro- 
duced by ilK fitting shoes. The toes are cramped, 
distorted, and interlapped ; the joiuts are enlarged 



154 



THE WELL-DHESSED WOMAN. 



and misshapen. When we remember that the toes 
are, by nature, perfectly mobile, and that the work- 
men of India use them with almost the same dex- 
terity as the fingers, we are able to appreciate the 
fact that modern shoes have made the toes an un- 




Fig. 46.— Abnormal Foot {Pop. Set. Mo.). 

necessary appendage, a region given over to corns, 
bunions, and other inconveniences. 

Tight shoes weaken the power of the muscles by 
preventing the action which is necessary to develop- 
ment, and by cutting off the blood supply ; the feet 
are badly nourished and the nerves diseased. The 
pressure about the ankles has the effect of a cor- 
seted ankle, the leg muscles are weakened, and a 
change in the mechanism of walking is necessitated. 
High heels throw the body forward, change the 
centre of gravity, and dislocate the organs of the 
pelvis. Curvature of the spine and other abnor- 
malities result from the effort of the bodv to main- 



HYGIENE AND DRESS OF THE FEET. 155 

tain an artificial equilibrium. The leverage is so 
changed that remote members suffer, and even the 
power of the arms is diminished. Dowie says : 
" If a soldier be weak or lame in the feet, he can 
never apply with advantage the strength of his arm 
in charging the enemy, or in sustaining a charge, 
because the foot is that part of the mechanical 
system or leverage which rests upon the fulcrum — 
the ground ; and if you weaken the leverage at this 
important point, the strength is reduced." Flat- 
foot, or the breaking of the arch, is another result 
of tight shoes. The weight of the body being 
shifted from the point designed by nature, breaks 
the arch by reason of the abnormal strain. 

Diseases of the foot are numerous, painful, and 
sometimes dangerous. The nails, joints, and bones 
are subject to maladies which often require the most 
skillful surgical treatment. A scrofulous state of 
the blood produces malignant conditions. Special- 
ists speak of the mysterious connection existing be- 
tween the nerves of the feet and the brain and nerv- 
ous system. "Dr. Brown-Sequard gives an account 
of a patient who, whenever he bore the weight of his 
body on thf right toe, became violently insane. A 
surgical operation, whereby a, nerve was bisected, 
cured him. He also speaks of a similar instance 



156 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

where pressure on the toe relieved nervous par- 
oxysms." 

The tight shoe, worn in the name of the beautiful, 
defeats the purpose for which it is intended. The 
foot, like even* other member, is given a size pro- 
portional to that of the body. A small foot looks 
well only when it is a part of a small body. It is 
exquisiteness of shape, not diminutive size, which 
gives beauty to these members. A graceful walk 
depends upon the elasticity of the arch and the 
strength and mobility of the toes, which help to 
raise the body. AVith immobility of the muscles 
we must have an uncertain, heavy thud, instead of a 
light, springy, elastic step. 

In childhood, when the bones and cartilages are 
tender, the feet are especially susceptible to injury. 
Nature has implanted in the child a love for the 
hopping, skipping, and jumping movements which 
strengthen the muscles and make the feet vigorous. 
The barefoot rustic has an immense advantage, 
because the foot has opportunity to spread, and the 
muscles can play freely. When the delicate foot 
of a little child is put into the modern shoe, the 
muscles of the toes, sole, and ankle are restricted 
in movement, and this means an arrest in their de- 
velopment. Another perversion from nature is the 




KA-OOWN BUITABT.K FOR STOUT WOMEN. 



HYGIENE AND DRESS OF THE FEET. 157 

turning out of the toes so carefull}- taught in danc- 
ing and in polite walking. It is said that unciv- 
ilized races never turn out the toes in walking. 
Anatomists and artists declare that the construc- 
tion of the foot shows that the toes should not turn 
out. Authorities on this subject find in this 
"vicious aversion of the foot" a cause for the 
"breaking down of the arch, which is most com- 
mon among children of the wealthy class." 

The ills of the feet are not entirely due to the 
vanity of human nature. They are due also to the 
ignorance of the shoemaking craft. Dowie, who 
was a scientific shoemaker, and not only studied 
the anatomy of the foot himself, but saw that his 
journeymen were carefully instructed, gives the 
following enumeration of errors: "That shoes are 
worn too short; that they are cut too narrow at the 
toes and in the sole ; that the soles do not conform 
to the shape of the inner curve of the foot, nor to 
the line of the great arch or instep and the great- 
toe ; that ;il tin' waist or middle the sole is too stiff 
and unyielding ; that the toe is vertically too shal- 
low, or ' wedge-toed '; that t lie heel is too high ; that 
the sole turns up too much at the toes." Thanks 
to lawn-tennis, the fact that a heel is not neccssan 



158 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

to "give spring" to the foot lias been demonstrated, 
and the ideal shoe has none. 

How then shall we be shod ? The moccasin of 
the aboriginal Indian takes precedence of our 
modern chausserie in its adaptation to the needs 
of the foot. Happily for society, our artists of 
clothes pronounce the Persian slipper the most aes- 
thetic foot-covering and the one which permits a 
graceful and easy walk. Young children, if they 
must be shod, should wear the moccasin. This 
will allow the foot to spread and the muscles of 
the legs and feet to develop by exercise. Within 
the last few years very radical changes have been 
made in the style of boots offered in the market. 
The common-sense shoe is Avell named, and the 
fact that it is salable proves that there remains a 
remnant who do not bow the knee to the Baal of 
fashion. The style of the shoe always reveals the 
character of the wearer, and harmonizes with other 
details of the toilet. Shoes have a social history ; 
in the periods of greatest debauchery they have 
been atrocious in style and extravagant in orna- 
mentation. Manufacturers who make boots and 
shoes according to the principles of hygiene, say 
that broad soles were introduced with great diffi- 
culty. This system is based on the natural shape 



HYGIENE AND DRESS OF THE FEET. 



159 



of the foot. In taking measurements for the boot 
the foot is spread on the floor, and the outline 
taken is the measure of the sole. Fig. 47, by 




-The Eureka. 



Dr. J. L. Peck, is a last which meets anatomic 
requirements concerning the form of sole. In 
selecting shoes it is important to allow sufficient 
length and an easy fit, especially about the ankle. 
The sole should be so wide that the uppers will 
not spread beyond them when the foot is pressed 
on the ground. Broad toes and no heels are essen- 
tial. The boot should be of flexible materia]. 



CHAPTER XII. 

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

"Le physique gouverne toujours le moral.'" — Voltaire. 

"It is impossible to repress luxury by legislation, but its 
influence may be counteracted by athletic games." — Solon. 

" Abashed the devil stood, 
And felt how awful goodness is, 
And saw Virtue in her shape how lovely." — Milton. 

Were it practicable to live au ideal life no study 
of physical culture would be necessary. Our 
daily activities would furnish the proper develop- 
ment. This is Buskin's picture : " An ancestry of 
the purest race, trained from infancy constantly 
but not excessively in all exercises of dignit}- — not 
in twists and straining dexterities, but in natural 
exercises of running, casting, or riding ; practised 
in endurance, not of extraordinary hardship, for 
that hardens and degrades the body, but of natural 
hardships, vicissitudes of winter and summer and 

cold and heat, yet in a climate where none are too 

160 



PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 161 

severe ; surrounded also by a certain degree of 
right luxury, so as to soften and refine the forms of 
strength." But the ideal life, which is also the 
natural life, is not possible in the nineteenth cen- 
tury. From the cradle to the grave we are sur- 
rounded by deteriorating influences. The well- 
born child is our only embodiment of physical 
beauty , muscles relaxed, body perfectly poised, 
every movement is full of unconscious grace. At 
an early age inherited muscular and nervous 
peculiarities begin to show themselves. Through 
ignorance, indifference, the subtle power of imita- 
tion, and defects of character he loses the erect 
carriage and falls into slouchy ways of sitting, 
standing, and walking. Physical faults are seldom 
corrected. The occasional injunction, " Throw back 
your shoulders," does not secure erect carriage, 
and the persistent care exercised to secure right- 
handedness results in one-sided development. 
Teachers of physical culture mention cases in 
which the left shoulder had fallen two inches 
through lack of exercise. Not only the left hand, 
but the whole left side of the body, is crippled by 
tin- unfortunate supremacy given to the right hand. 
Dr. Richardson tells us that right-handedness ami 
right-sidedness are also registered in the brains; 



162 THE WELL DRESSED WOMAN. 

" the left side of the brain, which supervises the 
right side of the body, being generally the larger." 

In childhood, when physical development should 
be of paramount importance, the precedence is 
usually given to brain-culture. Children are shut 
up in stuffy school-rooms, cramped into badly 
constructed seats, allowed to stoop over books in a 
way which depresses the chest ; while the grading 
system, the examinations, and other stimuli used to 
excite ambition are a great draught on the nervous 
system. Very few children enter adult life with 
well-knit, harmoniously developed bodies, and the 
formative period is as vital for physical as for 
moral well-being. 

The occupations of adult life necessitate, on the 
one hand, excessive and monotonous manual labor, 
and, on the other, insufficient exercise and mental 
strain. A familiar example of the first class is the 
farmer, and nearly one third of our population are 
farmers, whose work develops the muscles of the 
back and arms, while the chest is contracted and 
narrow. We seldom see a farmer who stands erect 
or walks with elastic step. The farmer's son de- 
velops the same characteristics before he reaches 
his teens. 

There is now an increasing tendency to city life. 



PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 163 

Multitudes crowd the factory, the counting-room, 
the artisan, mercantile and professional life, where 
they are shut away from sunshine and fresh air. 
In these avocations there is a tendency to chest- 
contraction, and no opportunity for muscle-making 
exercise. The use of machines, the specialization 
of labor, the increase of wealth with its attendant 
luxury, the competition and complication of busi- 
ness life, the intellectual and emotional character 
of our amusements, are pointed out as causes of 
physical deterioration and increase of nervous dis- 
ease. It is urged that systematic physical training- 
be made compulsory in our public schools. The 
end sought is not heavy gymnastic feats, but har- 
monious development, strong nerves, and clear 
bruins. 

Well-built bodies do not come by chance. The 
physical superiority of the ancient Greeks was not 
an accident. For years the entire nation had given 
itself to the training of the body as a religious ser- 
vice. Their women also were exercised in games 
of running, throwing, and casting. When the dete- 
riorating influence of increasing wealth made itself 
felt, the public authorities endeavored to counter- 
act the threatening evil by physical education. 
Should we to-day undertake the education of the 



164 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

body with the same earnest spirit, the same results 
would be accomplished. It is the purpose of phys- 
ical culture to correct the deviations from the law 
of our being which result from abnormal condi- 
tions. In its full sense the subject of physical 
culture includes the study of food, clothing, ven- 
tilation, bathing, exercise, and rest. In a technical 
sense it concerns the development, relaxation, and 
guidance of the muscles, and the development and 
strengthening of the nerve-centres which control 
them ; the needs of each individual are studied, 
defective attitudes are corrected, and appropriate 
exercise is given. 

Systematic exercise, under intelligent supervi- 
sion, is as necessary for physical as for mental 
growth. We recognize the necessity of exercise 
in the physical development of boys, but prac- 
tically ignore it in the development of girls. 
Herbert Spencer contrasts the playground of a 
boys' and girls' school : " In the case of a boys' 
school nearly the whole of a large garden is 
turned into an open, gravelled space, affording 
ample scope for games, and supplied with poles 
and horizontal bars for gymnastic exercises. 
Every day before breakfast, again at mid- day, 
again in the afternoon, and once more after school 




DESIGN BY E. T. JKWBTT. 



In presenting designs for trailing -owns it may be well to call attention 
to the occasions on which tliey are permissible. We believe that all women 
Bhould have boars of occupation as well as hours of leisure, with the prepon- 
derance in favor of activity. Trailing --owns an- tolerated only in the leisure 
ol the drawing-room. 



PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 165 

is over, the neighborhood is awakened by a chorus 
of shouts and laughter as the boys rush out to 
play ; and for as long as they remain both eyes 
and ears give proof that they are absorbed by en- 
joyable activity which makes the pulse bound and 
insures the healthful activity of every organ. How 
unlike is the picture offered by the establishment 
for young ladies ! Until the fact was pointed out, 
we actually did not know that we had a girls' 
school as close to us as the school for boys. The 
garden, equally large with the other, affords no 
sign whatever of any provision for juvenile recrea- 
tion, but is entirely laid out with prim grass- 
plots, gravel walks, shrubs, and flowers, after the 
usual suburban style. During five months we 
have not once had our attention drawn to the 
premises by a shout or a laugh. Occasionally 
girls may be observed sauntering along the paths 
with their lesson-books in their hands, or else 
walking arm in arm. Once, indeed, we saw one 
chase another around the garden; but, with this 
exception, nothing like vigorous exertion lias been 
visible." In our cities we cannot, it is true, bave a 
t'nr, open-air life, but dumb-bells and calisthenics, 
we must remember, are poor substitutes for natural 
out-of-door pastimes. 



166 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

The contrast in activities, which result in vig- 
orous or enervated life, marks every period in 
woman's existence. Her work gives a tendency 
to chest-contraction, is sedentary, and is uniformly 
conducted within doors. Few American women 
know what active exercise is, for " the laboring 
class " is usually of foreign birth. The great por- 
tion of American women are housewives and do 
their own work. Only about one family in twelve 
employs domestic service. Then we have an army 
of shop-girls, factory-hands, seamstresses, teachers, 
whose nerve-exhausting work has no antidote of 
exercise. These, with a few in the well-appointed 
homes of the upper classes, who are physically 
starved by luxurious idleness, make up the bulk 
of female population. 

AYhetlier housework affords a sufficient amount 
of exercise depends somewhat on the character of 
the work. The wash-tub and a Brussels carpet 
certainly call forth muscle-developing action, but 
dish-washing, dusting. " picking up," mending, and 
the little round which keeps the housewife eter- 
nally occupied, require no blood-stirring exertion. 
She may be wearied to the point of exhaustion 
with this monotonous routine, yet have no vigorous 
muscular action. Housework is better than no 



PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 167 

work. Tolstoi is right : manual employment is 
necessary even for brain-workers. It is better to 
cobble second-rate shoes than to do no work. 
Housework is an important part of the domestic 
economy, yet it is despised b}- all classes of women. 
Those who are obliged to do it usually chaff under 
the drudgery. Those who can, delegate it to 
others. It is to be hoped that the present interest 
in physical culture will give dignity to this depart- 
ment of labor. The gymnastics of bed-making, 
which even a society girl can indulge in, exercise 
the muscles of the arms, side, and back. Sweep- 
ing the parlor carpet or shaking the rugs will start 
the circulation as well as a chest-weight, and has 
the advantage of being useful. 

Childhood is the period ordained for health- 
giving pursuits. Freedom from care, exuberance 
of spirits, elastic muscles, are nature's indications 
of the golden age for physical culture. Realizing 
the importance of the formative period of life, 
Plato, in his "Ideal Republic," prescribes for the 
pastimes of youth. "With girls active, open-air 
sports are especially necessary as a counterbalance 
for the shut-in life of maturity ; yet these recreations 
society tacitly frowns upon. Girls arc trained from 
babyhood into sedentary habits ; the <loll is con- 



168 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

sidered her legitimate plaything. It is tacitly 
understood that girls are born with a passion for 
dolls, and boys with a passion for animals. The 
boy who finds amusement in the caressing and 
dressing of dolls is called a girl-baby. He is 
looked upon with anxiety as of a maudlin nature, 
and as not possessing the animal spirit which calls 
for active amusement. This maudlin nature is just 
as lamentable in a girl, but custom blinds our eyes 
to the fact. The care of a doll is said to develop 
the mother instinct and to teach the care of the 
wardrobe. Why the mother instinct should re- 
quire premature cultivation in girls and not the 
father instinct in boys society saith not. Amuse- 
ments which are the prerogative of boys are also 
the prerogative of girls. To run, jump, climb, 
hammer, go fishing, play ball, slide down hill, 
skate, if they were allowed freedom of choice, would 
be as instinctive in girls as in boys. Instead of 
calling the girl who loves these sports a tomboy 
we ought to rejoice that she has the j)hysical 
strength to enjoy them. If she lacks this strength, 
the same effort to improve her vitality should be 
made as is made for bo} r s. 

Much of the indoor life of women is wilful. 
Even in the country, with nature's beautiful invita- 



PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT, 169 

tion to ozone and sunlight constantly in view, 
women are usually mewed up within four walls. 
The rosy-cheeked country girl is a poetic fiction. 
Women show the same wilful neglect of exercise ; 
in fact the woman who is called upon for active 
muscular exertion feels herself abused ; for heavy 
lifting she always appeals to masculine aid. Men 
would doubtless loose muscular power if they re- 
fused to use the means b}' which strength is de- 
veloped. A certain woman of sedentary habits 
and predisposed to pulmonary troubles tried the 
experiment of chopping wood a short time every 
day, and the wood-pile saved her from the grave. 
Five finger-exercises at the piano do not compen- 
sate for lack of exercise in the thousand muscles of 
the body. 

The proper amount of fresh air, exercise, and 
rest is possible only to a privileged class ; the ma- 
jority cannot regulate their lives to meet the re- 
quirements of hygiene. An army of women fight- 
ing tor daily bread with only the weapon of their 
ham Is, an army of women prematurely aged by 
drudgery has no time for aesthetic physical culture. 
It must be admitted that the problem of the work- 
ing classes lies in the readjustment of social ques- 
tions. "Much can be done meantime to alleviate nn- 



170 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

favorable conditions. If women are compelled to 
live within doors, the most careful attention should 
be given to the ventilation of their dAvellings. Car- 
pets and draperies which retain dust and impure 
emanations should be banished. Sunshine and fresh 
air should be freely admitted. A third part of our 
life is spent in sleep. By opening the windows of 
the sleeping-room one can practically sleep out of 
doors the year round. Opening the windows of 
the bedchamber does not mean one window grudg- 
ingly thrown up a quarter of an inch ; it means 
windows open to the full height. We should rise 
superior to the old woman's theory that night-air 
is bad air. It is the onl}- air we have at night, and 
it is usually purer than day-air. Our double win- 
dows and our battened doors cheat us of a heaven- 
given birthright. No woman is so destitute that 
she cannot have fresh air and sunshine. The real 
difficulty is that all of us. rich and poor alike, 
prefer hot, stuffy dwelling-rooms. 

An important means of alleviating woman's bur- 
den of drudgery is to distinguish work which is 
really important from that which is superfluous. A 
great deal of woman's work is unnecessary ; it is the 
frills and furbelows of cooking and housekeeping 
and sewing. Much undue labor is caused by foolish 



PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 171 

ambition and the sordid desire for accumulating 
property ; Ave are not content having food and 
raiment. Much is due to ignorance of the laws of 
muscular economy ; the seamstress laboring to keep 
the wolf from the door dares not allow herself a 
moment for recreation, when to draw a long breath, 
to stretch a tired muscle, would impart fresh 
power to continue. 

The chief obstacle in the way of introducing 
correct dress is the physical condition of women. 
The stout wear tight clothing because of a mistaken 
idea that pressure diminishes apparent bulk. The 
thin wear the corset to conceal and fill out a meagre 
body. The present interest in dress contemplates 
not only improvement in clothing, but the forma- 
tion of erect bodies under the control of flexible 
muscles. A corpulent body is not to be stayed up 
by lacing, but must be taught to sustain itself and 
must have room for easy movement. Defects of 
the body are not to be concealed b} r dress, but 
overcome 1>\ healthful exercise. A narrow chest is 
not to be padded, but developed. 

Since corpulence and leanness are the two great 
<>l>st;irlcs in introducing correct dress, a. careful 
study of the oatural laws which prevent and de- 
velop adipose (issue is important. Thinness and 



172 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

stoutness are not altogether accidental, but are the 
normal results of the conditions of life. As a rule, 
the lean are the hard workers and frugal livers ; 
the stout are the indolent and well-fed. Physical 
development is to a great degree an inheritance, but 
this is the general law. The pounds avoirdupois 
usually give a clue to the temperament and avoca- 
tion. The laboring class, whether the work be 
manual or mental, have a lean, hungry look. The 
denizens of society are fat and flourishing. They 
that dwell in king's houses wear the insignia of 
adipose tissue. 

This is no new theory ; it is as old as Lycurgus. 
We recognize the law in the lower orders of life. 
Poultry to be fatted for the market is shut up and 
corn-fed. The stalled ox tells its own story. The 
market furnishes us pate de fois gras at the expense 
of the Strasburg goose, overfed to the point of 
liver complaint. The Italians have a device for 
inducing the ortolan to sleep and eat constantly, 
and by this means the poor bird in thre'e days be- 
comes " a delicious ball of fat." Too many oats 
and too little exercise will make the best horse fat 
and lazy. A well-known New England educator has 
a favorite horse which he is in the habit of weigh- 
ing every week in order to ascertain his physical 




DESIGN 6UITATJLE FOR STOtTT WOMEN. 



PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 173 

status. At one of the customary weighings the 
scales showed a loss in the animal of one pound. 
The master gave orders immediately that the horse 
should not be driven for a week, until his normal 
weight was recovered. An establishment in Silesia 
advertises to make the thin fat. The gain guar- 
anteed is one-half pound daily. The patients are 
fed eight times per day. They eat slowly to the 
time of music. Exercise is regulated according 
to the need of the patient. Dr. Sargent says : 
"Appropriate exercise for the waist will soon re- 
duce superfluous fat, and healthy muscle will take 
the place of the corset in supporting the bust and 
giving uprightness to the figure. One object of 
physical training is to keep down or reduce super- 
fluous flesh." Obesity shows an unhealthful state 
of the system. It is a mild form of gout, and 
should be overcome by eradicating the disease. 
One may see the absurdity of attempting to reduce 
flesh by tin- use of the corset if one imagines a cor- 
pulent man attempting to lace in redundant fat. 
Excessive Leanness also shows an impoverished and 
unhealthy condition of the system. It is easier to 
reduce flesh than to acquire it, for the reason that 
self-denial, frugality, and exercise are possible to 



174 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

every one, while proper nourishment, physical ease, 
and mental repose are possible to few. 

The first and vital step in physical culture is to 
overcome departures from nature in the common 
habits of life — breathing, standing, walking, and 
sitting. Women have, through weakness, indo- 
lence, acquired habit, and the restrictions of dress, 
assumed an unnatural carriage which has become 
second nature. Hardly one can be found who 
holds herself or walks in a natural or normal man- 
ner. An effort to assume the erect position and 
normal poise causes at first a feeling of constraint 
and awkwardness. The chest is sunken, the head 
dropped forward, the neck curved, the abdomen 
protruded, and the base of the back correspond- 
ingly depressed. In standing the weight of the 
body is thrown on the heels ; in sitting the weight 
of the trunk is thrown on the spine (Figs. 48 and 
49).* The breath is short and quick, seldom calling 
the diaphragm into action. These violations of the 
law of our being invite disease. The vital organs 
are thrown out of position, their altitude is lowered, 
their functions can go on only with abnormal strain, 
resulting in permanent Aveakness and disease. 



From Mrs. Le Pavre's Delsartean Physical Culture. 



PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 



175 



Women must persistently, faithfully, systematically, 
begin a physical reformation. But how are these 
faults to be corrected ? With a competent teacher 
one reaps the same advantage in this as in other 




Fin. 48.— Correct. 




departments. Opportunities for study are every 
day becoming more general, and physical culture 
will soon he as summarily insisted upon in our 
common schools as are now "the three It's." In- 



176 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

difference is the obstacle to be dreaded. Many 
who have been instructed are too indolent to make 
practical use of their knowledge. 

We must not for a moment entertain the thought 
that physical culture is a fad for a few fortunate 
ladies avIio can take a course in Delsaite. Del- 
sarte and his exponents are simply striving to get 
back to nature. If physical faults are common to 
all women, their remedy is also common to all 
women, and the little child is a universal teacher. 
A careful study of his erect body and beautiful 
poise gives the best practical lesson. 

The laws of aesthetic physical culture are author- 
ized by the necessities of our being. Its exercises 
are not a drill for an occasional hour of practice, 
but a practical reformation to be taken into the 
habits of daily life. There should be an effort to 
maintain the normal pose in every activity ; when 
this is impossible, a frequent return to normal atti- 
tudes, a deep breath, and the stretching of cramped 
muscles will rest the body and counteract the ten- 
dency to physical deterioration. 

One great step towards physical restoration will 
be taken when women adopt a st}le of dress 
which allows diaphragmatic breathing and muscu- 
lar freedom. With vital energy, unimpeded respi- 



PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. Ill 

ration, and correct dress we shall instinctively 
return to natural habits of poise and bearing. 

Physical culture teaches muscular economy as 
well as muscular development. No more muscular 
force should be expended than is necessary to ac- 
complish a given act. It is estimated that we waste 
between seventy and eighty per cent of our vital 
energy. Muscular power is wasted by rigidity of 
muscles as well as by superfluous motion, and 
both these forms of wasting power are common 
among women, because of their excessive nervous 
development. They work and even rest under the 
high-pressure system. In the simple act of sewing 
the lungs are cramped and the needle is drawn 
through the goods with intense energy ; in 
writing the pen is clutched feverishly and the 
muscles of arm and wrist are rigidly strained ; 
in walking the arms are either held by the will 
in stiff attitudes or they are violently swung at 
the side ; in resting the tension of the muscles 
is still maintained. Only in sleep or in mo- 
ments of absolute exhaustion do the muscles 
become limp like those of an animal at rest. 
Relaxation of muscles is a first practice in phys- 
ical culture ; yet here, again, we must not sup- 
pose that muscular abnegation can be acquired 



178 THE WELL- DRESSED WOMAN. 

only by the few who go through a course of devit- 
alizing exercises. The secret of the power of mus- 
cular relaxation is in the mind. If we dismiss from 
our hearts all unworthy anxieties, all feeling of 
hurry, we shall learn the economy of muscular and 
nerve power. 

The physical reformation of woman can be ac- 
complished only through her own determined 
effort. We do not ask that she have the strength 
and stature of man ; we do ask that she have the 
maximum of womanly strength and stature. Physi- 
cal inability stands in the way of educational and 
intellectual progress. Miss Porter says of the 
girls in private schools: "Nervousness, backache, 
weakness, loss of appetite, generally follow soon 
upon the realization that school means hard work. 
A hard lesson to be mastered lays a girl low with 
a headache or dissolves her in floods of tears. It 
is the exception rather than the rule that half the 
pupils, though they may not call themselves inva- 
lids, are in no condition to endure school-work." It 
is true that Ave occasionally hear of girls who carry 
off all the honors in colleges ; yet it is also a fact 
that few women have the physical stamina to 
endure long-continued mental work. Alas, how 
man}- right and noble ambitions must be sacri- 



PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 179 

ficed because the flesh is weak ! Since women 
have more leisure than men, the intellectual and 
physical advancement of the race depends upon 
them ; jet their children are not well born nor well 
reared. As disciplinarians women fail because they 
lack the strong physique which alone inspires 
respect, and the uniform, steady government which 
results from sound nerves. Mothers have often 
not the physical strength to combat the strong 
youthful will, and their influence has the petulance 
and fickleness born of physical weakness. 

Health begets courage, independence, self-reli- 
ance, and all the noble traits of character. It is 
said that ill-health is a source of crime and that a 
large proportion of our criminal classes come from 
the physically depraved. 

The cultivation of the body should be with us, 
as with the Greeks, a religious duty. Beauty of 
soul ought to manifest itself in beauty of person. 
It seems almost a travesty on virtue that it is 
usually found in the delicate and cadaverous. The 
good are often those whose infirmities keep them 
apart from the temptations of the flesh. The vigor 
of manhood is more often the type of its lust than 
its virtue. Happy will be that day when the fresh- 
ness and strength of manhood and womanhood may 



180 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

be our ideals of goodness and purity. Our bodies 
are the temples for the indwelling of the Holy 
Spirit. If we honor this temple we shall honor the 
Spirit. 



CHAPTEK XIII. 

BEAUTY OF FOEM. 

" Who tells you this shape's awkward, that one fine ? 
Has yours the right to judge or censure mine ?" 

"Depart not from nature, neither imagine of thyself to 
invent aught better, for art standeth firmly fixed in nature, 
and whoso can thence rend her forth, he only possesseth her." 

— Aibrecht Dilrer. 

The physical senses deteriorate with abuse and 
vicious surroundings. The constant use of highly 
seasoned food blunts the sense of taste so that 
the power of appreciating delicate flavors is lost. 
Constant strumming of a musical instrument which 
is out of tune destroys the power of the ear to 
detect false notes. The eye is equally susceptible 
to degrading influences. We so invariably see the 
female body distorted into artificial shapes that 
taste has been perverted and our eyes have lost 
the power to distinguish its true beauty. The 
modern conception of "aline figure " is quite dif- 

IHl 



182 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

ferent from accepted standards in art, and, while 
" women would be in despair if Nature had formed 
them as fashion makes them appear," they would 
be equally in despair to be formed as the artist 
makes them appear (Figs. 50 and 51). 

The striking and obtrusive in nature are sure to 
command the untrained eye. Even the boor is 
impressed by a resplendent sunset or the grandeur 
of a deep-cut gorge. But the real lover of nature, 
the subtle seer, delights in the wavelike undula- 
tions of the sward and the bare arms of the de- 
nuded tree, etched against the sky in delicate line 
and tracery. The boor recognizes the richness of 
a glowing complexion or an impressive presence, 
while the trained eye catches the grace of a soft 
flowing outline and the perfect proportions of an 
ideal figure. This higher power of appreciation is 
rare, because it accompanies high intellectual and 
spiritual development, lieason, analytical power, 
imagination, and purity of heart are elements nec- 
essary to aesthetic insight. 

We shall make no progress in correct dress 
while the eye delights in artificial standards of 
beauty in form. A very important part of the 
present effort to improve dress is, therefore, to " put 
the compasses in the eye," so that it will be pained 




VENUS OF MTLO. 



Here we Lave the embodiment of an ideal form. The Venus of Milo gives 
us the true proportions of the feminine body and is also the type of healthful 
muscular development. The tendency to corpulency among women in middle 
life is an indication of disease. The remedv for this disease is exercise and diet. 







PAUIS FASHION-PLATE. 

This figure is a fair exponent of our Magazines <>f Fashion. The girth of 
tin- waist is little more than that of the aeck. This proportion is not unusual 
in actual life. With this deformity we find a ponderous development of hips, 
produced by the crowding down of organs and muscles. 



BEAUTY OF FORM. 183 

by artificial and conventional shapes. This work 
is educational and moral. 

Since no other nation has possessed the delicate 
perception of the beautiful with which, the ancient 
Greeks were endowed, we shall find help in ascer- 
taining the conditions which produced this peculiar 
aesthetic gift. The Greek appreciation of the beau- 
tiful was not indigenous, but was the outcome 
of various happy circumstances. The grandeur of 
Grecian scenery kindled the Hellenic imagination. 
Every freedman was trained in logic, rhetoric, and 
oratory, and this developed the higher intellectual 
faculties. But their peculiar reverence for the 
physical man grew out of the Greek religion. The 
great national games were religious services whose 
aim was to show the resemblance of the gods to 
men and to develop the resemblance of men to the 
gods. Their worship was the attainment of the 
spiritual through the perfection of the physical. 
The entire nation gathered to witness the games, 
for which preparation had been made in even the 
most remote isles. The candidates were obliged to 
prove that no stain, civil or religious, was on their 
character, and that they had been through the pre- 
scribed course of gymnasium training. Praxiteles, 



186 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN 

Phidias, and Polycletus were the. outcome of this 
age. Grimm says of the work of this period : 

"At the time when the best statues of the 
Greeks were produced, numberless eyes had given 
long years of study to the contemplation of the 
human body. The Greeks were accustomed to 
their own unclothed bodies, and felt themselves 
freest and best when they wore as few garments as 
possible. By this means, while with us only the 
movements of the countenance, and at times of the 
hands, are a mirror of the feelings, with them the 
whole body was the expression of the soul within. 
They knew how to interpret every line. Every 
movement had its meaning. They saw in the 
muscles of a naked man what we see in the present 
day in the wrinkles of the brow." But greater 
than all else was the Greek study of and sym- 
pathy with nature. With them the good and the 
true was the beautiful, and the beautiful was the 
good and the true. The Venus of Milo, universally 
conceded to be the grandest embodiment of the 
female form which art has ever produced, shows 
this intense reverence of nature. 

To full}- understand the beauty of the human 
form it is necessary to appreciate the grace of 
curves and undulating lines. The beautv of curved 



BEAUTY OF FORM. 187 

lines is primarily due to the structure of the eye 
itself. Straight Hues, which call the same set of 
muscles into continuous action, cause fatigue. 
Straight lines are crude. They characterize a low 
order of artistic development. The first attempt 
which the child makes at drawing is in straight 
lines. The Indian's artistic efforts are composed 
of straight lines, just as his music is in dull mono- 
tones. Ruskin says on this subject ; " That all 
forms of acknowledged beauty are composed ex- 
clusively of curves will, I believe, be generally 
allowed ; but that which there will be more need to 
prove is the subtlety and constancy of curvature 
in all natural forms whatsoever. What curvature 
is to lines, gradation is to shades in color. Not 
only does every good curve vary in general ten- 
dency, but it is modulated, as it proceeds, by 
myriads of subordinate curves. The essential dif- 
ference between good and bad drawing or sculp- 
ture depends on the quantity and refinement car- 
ried by good work into the great lines." "Nature 
abhors a straight line." Even the sky-line of the 
sea is only apparently straight ; the prairies are 
varied by delicate undulations. 

Tin- contour of the human body reveals all these 
refinements of curvature and imperceptible grada- 



188 THE WELL- DRESSED WOMAN. 

tions. The general outline of the natural female 
body is that of an elongated oval. This oval con- 
tour is composed of two modulating and varying 
curves, one from the head to the hips, the other 
the from hips to the feet, the greatest width being 
at the hips. Fitzgerald compares the outline of the 
female form to that of " a graceful sinuous column 
of unequal thickness, rather Doric in outline, sur- 
mounted by the head or capital." The small, 
finely moulded head is poised on the vertebral 
column. The vertebral column follows the deli- 
cate and subtle " line of beauty " — viz., two convex 
curves separated and joined by a concave. The 
neck swells gently into the shoulders, whose angu- 
larity is prevented by just the proper disposition 
of fat. The delicate curves of the neck and chest 
flow into the small, pendent breast. The trunk 
tapers, in subtle gradation, at the sides, then 
spreads into the powerful hips. The abdomen is a 
beautifully modulated convex curve. The entire 
surface of the body is composed of softly blending 
lines ; not one is repeated, not an angle is visible. 
The head is balanced on the trunk, the trunk on 
the legs, and the legs on the arch of the feet, in 
exquisite poise. Drawing is now recognized as an 
important aid in training the powers of observation. 



BEAUTY OF FORM. 189 

Nothing will so help the student to an appreciation 
of the varying, undulating, and serpentine lines of 
the human body as to trace the outline of the 
Venus of Milo. 

What does fashionable dress do to this exquisite 
form ? The oval outline is changed into that of an 
inverted cone, whose greatest width is at the 
shoulders, the male type of conformation. The 
Doric column, thinned in the middle, is trans- 
formed into an hour-glass. The vertebral column 
bows visibly at the neck ; often, indeed, there is a 
double curve. The shoulders are pushed up into 
right angles. The breast is elevated into prom- 
inence, and forms with the fat of the neck a solid 
pin-cushion of adipose. The line from armpit to 
hips is mathematically rigid and harshly tapering. 
The line of the abdomen is an unvarying concave, 
and the hips form an angular protuberance. The 
poise of the body is destroyed, and an artificial and 
ungainly balance is necessitated. 

Other points in which civilized life has altered 
the ideal are of interest. The normal head is small, 
perhaps, in contrast with the power and dignity of 
a well-developed body. The heads of modern civil- 
ized races are too large in proportion to the body. 
The hands of classic models are, large and well 



190 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

formed ; the fingers, while not blunt, are yet not 
finely tapered. The models of Greek sculpture 
were accustomed to labor, and the excessive taper- 
ing which marks the useless T iand is never seen. 
The cutting of the finger-nails a la manicure does 
not follow the natural curve of the finger-tip, and 
the excessive polishing gives a shiny appearance 
instead of a shell-like surface. These two inver- 
sions give to the finger-nails the appearance of 
birds' claws. 

In the science of aesthetics, philosophers recognize 
proportion, symmetry, variety, and fitness for use 
as elemental and necessary qualities. Are these 
demands of the beautiful answered in the human 
body? 

Proportion is defined as the harmony of the 
parts of a thing with the whole of it. It is said 
that there are no principles in the structure 
of man which may not be taken as the most 
absolute standard of excellence in architecture. 
Indeed, Vitruvius says that the artists of antiquity 
deduced their laws of symmetry from the human 
body and then applied them to architecture. Each 
part of the human body has just the size which 
is necessary for the work it must accomplish, and 
just the proportion which harmonizes with the 



BEAUTY OF FORM. 191 

individual. The young, lithe form has a slender 
waist ; the full, strong matron has an ample girth. 

Fashion attenuates the slim waist of the lithe 

« 

physique, and forces the small waist on women 
whose build demands the large. Flesh and blood 
may be displaced by the corset, but they can- 
not be eliminated. The forcing of organs and 
tissues from their proper position results in un- 
gainly proportions of flesh above and below the 
waist-line. The equilibrium and relation of all the 
parts of the trunk are altered. The lower part of 
the waist has been likened to the " monstrous 
appendage of a wasp's body." The true artist is 
filled with indignation at the sight of female de- 
formity. Many leading artists refuse to paint the 
travesty of nature which is produced by fashion- 
able dress. They endeavor to conceal the deform- 
ity by the skilful adjustment of drapery. 

A prominent artist gives the following measure- 
ments as necessary for a perfect model of physical 
beauty in woman : "To meet the requirements of a 
classic figure a tady should be five feet four and 
three-quarter inches tall, thirty-two inches bust 
measure, twenty-four inches waist, nine inches from 
armpit to waist, long arms and neck. A queenly 
woman, however, should be five feet five inches tall, 



192 THE WELL DRESSED WOMAN. 

thirty-six inches about the bust, twenty-six and one- 
half about the waist, thirty-five over the hips, eleven 
and one-half inches around the ball of the arm, 
and six and one-half inches around the wrist. Her 
hands and feet should not be too small." 

Symmetry is defined as the opposition of equal 
parts to each other. The symmetry of a tree is the 
arrangement of its boughs so that one side balances 
the other. If the top of the tree were lopped off, the 
trunk and the foliage would be out of proportion. 
If the boughs were lopped off one side, the tree 
would loose its symmetry. The symmetry of the 
body is found in the balance of the right and left 
sides. The right eye is located so that it is sym- 
metrical with the left. If the right eye were half 
an inch higher than the left, the symmetry would 
be destroyed. The law of symmetry in the human 
body is not an arbitrary adjustment of its parts. 
It grows out of ihe law of necessity. The right 
eye an inch higher than the left gives an impres- 
sion of inharmony, because in such an adjustment 
the two eyes cannot focus together, and vision is 
impaired. It needs but a moment of thought to 
awaken an appreciation of the wonderful symmetry 
of the human form. The median line passing 
through the centre of the body divides it into two 



BEAUTY OF FORM. 193 

equal parts, and each feature of the right side 
balances and plays into each feature of the left. 
We say, at the first moment, here is an element of 
beauty with which fashionable dress does not in- 
terfere. A corset, tight sleeves, tight boots, leave 
the same rigid impression on the right and left 
sides. But the symmetry of nature is never formal 
nor accurate. She takes the greatest care to secure 
some difference between the corresponding things 
or parts of things. The bough on the left side of 
the tree is not precisely like the bough on the 
right. If it were there would be an effect of 
stiffness and formality. The right and left eyes 
working in exactly the same method would have 
the animation of eyes which turn to the right and 
left by machinery. The symmetry of the corset- 
figure is mathematical. The rigidity of the waist 
is the fixed symmetry of an inanimate being. 
There is no delicate balancing of the sides by the 
interplay of muscles. The muscles indeed seem 
petrified. The precise and tapering lines of the 
corset-figure are of no higher quality than the 
mantua-maker's dummy. 

Variety 1ms already been considered in the study 
of curvature. Other forms of variety are seen in 
the wonderful combinations of color. The hair, 
eyes, lips, complexion, each graded to harmonize 



194 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

with the other, form a palette which the artist 
reproduces only approximately. All this beauty 
of color is lost through ill-health, for which irra- 
tional dress is largely responsible. Premature 
grayness, the lustreless eye, pallid complexion, in- 
elasticity of skin, whiteness of lips, decay of teeth, 
reduce the brilliant coloring of nature to a dull 
monotone. Indeed, in the language of Dr. Pritch- 
ard, " the idea of beauty of person is synonymous 
with that of health and perfect organization. 
Goodness and beauty will accordingly be found to 
bear a strict relation to each other, and the latter 
is always the external sign of the former." 

Fitness for Use. — Burke say: "The idea of a 
part being well adapted to its end is one cause of 
beauty. This fitness is not singly for physical 
ends, but for sense, thought, and motion." Fitness 
for use and beauty are so combined in the human 
body that it is difficult to separate one from the 
other. The shell-like flutings of the ear contribute 
to the production of sound, the " little reliefs and 
faint shadows which mark the fingers " are the 
necessary foldings of the skin over the joints. 
Fashionable dress renders the body unfit for use. 
Where nature has purposely omitted bones, in 
order to furnish a pivot or centre of motion, there 
fashion insist upon putting artificial bones, so that 




FASHION FOR 1893. 



Fashion, like vice, is insidious in development. The most outrageous styles 
have had an unpretentious beginning. The slight suggestion of crinoline in 
the styles of 1893 are the counterpart of the primeval hoop-skirt, worn in the 
Court of Francis I. From this funnel-shaped contour came variations of the 
most incredible size and design. 




The Sappho is placed here to restore the power of the critical faculty, per 
verted by the fashions of 'J» ; !. If the arms of a human being were of the shape 
outlined by the sleeves on the opposite page, ;i Burgical operation would be 
necessary. When we appreciate the graceful droop of the shoulder, the deli- 
cate taper of the arm, and the Bweep of the line from hip to ankle, we shall not 
disfigure the body with voluminous sleeves and crinoline. To adopt these 
absurd rtyles vitiates the public taste and brings womanhood into contempt. 
The moral perception is insensibly dulled, for to persisl in doing henseless 
things has a deteriorating influence <>n the character. 



BEAUTY OF FORM. 195 

the entire economy of motion in the body is frus- 
trated. Walking, running, stooping, sitting, reach- 
ing, in a word every motion necessitated by work 
or exercise, originate at a different point and 
proceed by a different method than that which 
nature intended. Not only is grace of motion 
sacrificed, but an undue amount of nervous and 
vital energy is consumed in awkward movements. 
The truly beautiful always embodies a perfectly 
thought plan. The female figure is especially 
built for the great aud noble plan of maternity. 
To change the shape so that the body is unfit for 
this office is hot only an assault on the welfare of 
the human race, but is a gross outrage on the sense 
of fitness which lies at the base of all true artistic 
feeling. 

But we may analyze all the elements of beauty 
and understand all its philosophy from the Neo- 
platonic school to French impressionalism : if the 
heart is not simple and pure we shall lack the 
vision of "the inward eye." When we grow into 
sympathy with nature and with nature's (rod we 

shall turn instinctively from everything artificial. 
There must be a return to the conception of the 

Creator and a reverent acceptance of His ideal in the 
form of woman. The pure in heart not only see 
God, but sec His thought in the work of His hands. 



CHAPTEE XIV. 

GRACE IN MOTION. 

"Perfect gesture requires reason in addition to grace.'' — 
Attributed to Delsarte. 

"The highest grace is the outcome of consummate 
strength." — Goethe. 

Motion as an art is the youngest of the sciences. 
Until recently it has been taught empirically. 
Delsarte discovered the universal laws of form, 
time, and motion. By patient and ceaseless obser- 
vation he found also the laws of spontaneous ex- 
pression in motion. There is no arbitrary stand- 
ard by which motion is recognized as graceful or 
awkward, for the laws which govern it are founded 
in the vital principles of our being. 

Every science is suceptible of degradation when 
it is undertaken in the wrong spirit. The art- 
ist who uses the brush for the sole object of 

selling a picture degrades his profession. Per- 

196 



GRACE IN MOTION. 197 

liaps no art is so shamelessly belittled as the 
science of motion. To the multitude the study of 
grace consists in acquiring a gently serpentine 
walk, flowing gestures, or a pleasing pose. For 
this reason it is believed that the study of motion 
begets self-consciousness. The aim of the science 
is quite the reverse of the popular conception. 
The purpose is to rid the student of self-conscious- 
ness and to restore the body to its natural, highest, 
and most economical use. Delsarte himself said, 
"A gesture put on is a grimace. " 

Grace has been defined as " self control mani- 
fested physically, " and "the bodily manifestation 
of inward freedom. " Here we find that the key- 
note of the science lies in the character. When we 
begin to analyze the causes of awkwardness Ave 
usually find that it originates in defective character ; 
self-consciousness and pride are at the bottom. 
The little child is graceful because he is uncon- 
scious of himself. As soon as the ego develops, 
awkwardness develops. Pride takes the form of 
self-depreciation, and the manner is stiff and re- 
strained. It takes the form of self-assertion, and 
tin- manner is pompous. ]t takes the form of 
superiority and aggressiveness, and the elbows 
stick out at right angles. It takes the form of 



198 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

vanity, and we have mincing steps and meaningless 
grimaces ; or it affects strength, and we have as- 
sumed vivacity and sprightliness. Self-conscious- 
ness acts on the nervous system, and we have the 
giggling and fingering of embarrassment. Self-con- 
sciousness is betrayed in the hands more than in 
any other part of the body, because they are most 
free to manifest it. The little child is not con- 
scious of hands, neither is the adult when alone. 
As soon as a woman enters the drawing-room or 
goes out in public a consciousness of hands begins, 
and she cannot feel at ease unless they are occu- 
pied with muff, card-case, fan, or parasol. The 
moment the mind is deeply engrossed the con- 
sciousness of the hands vanishes and the fan or 
parasol becomes unnecessary. 

Character has such an influence on the bearing 
of the body that the mind is revealed by the gait. 
The firm, erect bearing of youth expresses ambi- 
tion and the consciousness of strength. The timid 
heart has a faltering pace. The listless soul has 
a shuffling gait. The villain walks with stealthy 
tread. The plodding mind is enclosed in a lumber- 
ing frame. The dilettante walks with finicking, the 
invalid with careful step. A restless spirit betrays 




A tlii.- example of harmonic P°"j?> ' r " ln " 
by Florence Fowle ^dams (B S, Werner, pub 
monic poi<»a, they could guard their pupils fro 
among children. 



ir edi 
lateraJ 



Pantomimic Action 
ators understood har- 
iurvature so common 



GRACE IN MOTION. 199 

itself in nervous manners, while a walk of quiet 
dignity betokens a well-balanced soul. 

Since the ideal of grace lies in the perfection of 
organization, the physical manifestation of a mind 
which has attained self-control ought to be grace- 
ful. Ideally this is the case, but, the ideal of a 
sound mind in a sound body is rarely if ever real- 
ized. Either the mind is out of balance or the 
muscles are not the obedient servants of the will. 
There are musicians who keenly appreciate the 
power of music to whom utterance is impossible 
because the fingers and voice have been untrained 
to expression of inward harmony. There are ar- 
tists who through technical ignorance cannot ade- 
quately represent their yearnings for the beauti- 
ful. So there are graceful souls whose bodies lack 
the ] lower to express the inward peace. While the 
secret of graceful motion lies dee]) in the heart, the 
physical manifestation is modified by outward con- 
ditions. Physical weakness, conventional educa- 
tion, nervous s< nsitiveness, muscle-binding labor, 
all these may trammel the expression of a pure 
and unaffected mind. The first work in the study 
of motion is to secure muscular abnegation. The 
body must be as flexible as that of a little child. 
All unnatural contractions must be overcome. 



200 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

When freedom has been gained, the student is 
taught the highest and most economical use of the 
body. Just this, and nothing more, is meant by 
ease of movement, precision of movement, and har- 
mony of movement, and these are the elements of 
grace. Self-possession, not self-consciousness, 
comes when the bod}' is brought back from 
strained and acquired habits to its true bearing. 
"We might object to the study of the piano that 
it will lead to self-consciousness. The novice 
at the piano is painfully conscious of hands and 
fingers until the right touch is learned and flexi- 
bility has been acquired through practice. When 
this is gained, the fingers glide over the keys with- 
out thought. Or we might say that the proper 
management of the voice in singing and reading is 
intuitive, therefore to study voice-culture leads to 
mannerism and artificiality. The fact remains that 
the singer and the elocutionist must acquire natural 
methods of singing and reading by years of prac- 
tice. We are self-conscious when we do not know 
the use of the body. As soon as muscular control 
has been gained, awkwardness and self-conscious- 
ness are at an end. 

In the study of motion, grace is not the end to 
be sought. The purpose is to learn the natural, 



OR ACE IN MOTION. 201 

which is the right, use of the body ; grace follows 
as the result. Grace is only another name for 
physical and moral rectitude. Exterior grace is an 
aid to internal grace, because the body and soul 
work together as a unit. It is impossible to influ- 
ence one without influencing the other. In our 
houses of correction the mind of a dullard is 
reached by giving him exercises which require 
manual dexterity. To force a calm exterior in a 
momeut of passion reacts on the soul and is the 
beginning of internal peace. To force the Avalk 
into quietness when the mind is in a state of ex- 
citement helps to restore mental equilibrium. 
"How can we learn repose of mind if Ave have not 
repose of muscle? " 

The curved line is the line of beauty in motion 
as in form. The swaying, undulating rhythm may 
be seen in the motion of every leaf, in the flight of 
the bird, in the ripple of the gentle stream, and in 
the wave of the ocean. A straight line in motion 
expresses force, fact, antagonism, hate. Delsarte 
discovered that, when the higher emotions take 
possession of the soul, movement is always in 
curves. He believed that the converse of this is 
also true, and that by teaching the body to move in 
curves the higher emotions are suggested. As the 



202 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

ideal of grace lies in physical and mental balance, 
we see that the study of motion is not an occult 
art, open only to those who can practice rhythmic 
exercises. Graceful motion will come in propor- 
tion as we grow into loving sympathy with our 
fellow-men, and as the lower nature ceases to have 
dominion over us. 

Motion in animal life is a complex thing, which 
involves the play and co-ordination of every part of 
the body. Each muscle must have free play and 
work independently, yet balancing with the others. 
Motion-harmony, like color-harmony, is of a high 
order only when it involves indescribable shades. 
For this reason grace of motion is not possible 
Avhen the muscles are constricted. In civilized 
woman the physical manifestation of inward self- 
control is circumscribed by dress. However free 
may be her soul, there can be no bodily expres- 
sion of freedom. Moreover, the principal restric- 
tion comes at the crucial point where grace 
demands absolute liberty. The spinal column is 
the pivot on which the body should freely swing. 
To secure this free action on the spinal column, 
nature has purposely left all the parts about the 
waist soft and without bones. The spinal column 
itself is made flexible by its numerous joints. 




THE GOLDEN BTATBB. I'.v E. BUKNE-JONES. 

A study in grace of form and subtlety of motion. 



GRACE IN MOTION. 203 

Miss Call says : " Each vertebra should be so dis- 
tinctly and individually independent from every 
other, that the spine is like the toy snakes, jointed 
so that we take the tail with the fingers and it 
waves in all directions. Most of us have spinal 
columns which more or less resemble ramrods." 
The unyielding enclosure of the corset causes an 
atrophy of all the muscles of support and reduces 
the soft pliable portion to a rigid mass. The effect 
is the same whether the corset is tight or loose, or 
the bodice heavily boned. The corset gives to the 
waist the same awkwardness which is produced in 
the neck when it is closely bandaged, or when one 
is afflicted with stiff neck. There is always an 
appearance of difficulty of movement which is fatal 
to grace. A teacher of physical culture says : "It 
is chiefly at the waist-line that women are found in 
need of development, and for them grace of motion 
means flexibility at the waist." For this reason 
the student is required to give constant practice 
to exercises which secure suppleness to the waist. 
Constraint at the waist means constraint of the 
whole bod}'. The delicate balancing of the body 
which forms the great charm of motion is entirely 
lost by the paralysis of the torso. AYalkiug degen- 
erates into wabbling through the weakness of the 



204 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

muscles of the calf of the leg and the binding of 
petticoats. Tight gloves, tight sleeves, high col- 
lars, rob the body of all power of expression. The 
rigidity of dress makes the muscles work as a 
mass. Independent action is impossible. Motion 
is in angles and jerks. All the delicate, impercep- 
tible, rippling movements which are the poetry of 
motion are impossible. 

The popular opinion that women are more grace- 
ful than men is fallacious. They have a more 
dexterous use of the fingers, because their work 
requires deft touches. Meaningless inflections of 
the wrist and fingers do not, however, constitute 
grace. Contrast the freedom with which a man 
walks and the constrained gate of the female 
pedestrian. In running she is actually an object 
of ridicule. In throwing she is so awkward that 
her constrained movements are said to be due 
to a peculiar formation of the clavicle. It is not 
the anatomy of a woman which places her at such 
a disadvantage. The stiff motions are caused by 
dress. The interest which women have of late 
taken in athletic games proves that there is no 
peculiar clavicular formation. She has been 
known to throw as swift ball as her brother. 

Contrast the gestures of a male and female 



GRACE IN MOTION. 205 

orator. A man, catching the inspiration of his 
subject, forgets his body, and ever}* muscle con- 
tributes to the expression of thought. The woman, 
braced in tight clothes, can onl}* enter into the 
subject with the tips of her fingers. A gesture 
beyond the forearm is rare. 

Women devote much time to the cosmetics of 
beauty. The rather should we correct that de- 
pravity of taste which constrains nature ; cultivat- 
ing the physical strength and the beauty of char- 
acter which make grace inevitable. 



CHAPTER XV. 

ART PRINCIPLES APPLIED TO DRESS. 

"The change of fashions is the tax that the industry of the 
poor levies on the vanity of the rich." — Chamfort. 

"Art in dress disappeared with the manufacture of the 
needle and scissors." — Henrietta Russell. 

The failure of reformers who have appealed only 
to the conscience of women shows that correct 
dress will be adopted only when it is made beauti- 
ful. It is notorious that in matters of dress con- 
science is always sacrificed to taste. The world 
is not ready for radical changes, much less for 
changes in the direction of the uncouth. To ap- 
proach the subject of dress by an appeal to the 
beautiful is not presenting an unworthy motive, for 
the beautiful is always at one with both health and 
conscience. 

While eveiy intelligent soul craves the beautiful, 
there is great confusion as to what is beautiful. 
The multitude blindly follow fashions which are 



ART PRINCIPLES APPLIED TO DRESS. 207 

inaugurated by avarice, caprice, and accident. 
Fashions are largely due to the cupidity of trades- 
men whose craft depends on the vanity of the 
female heart. Human ingenuity is never exhausted 
in producing fabrics of exquisite texture and color, 
laces of finest pattern, ribbon of every shade, jewels 
of rare design. These, with cheap imitations, are 
flaunted in the shop-window to lure female barter 
through female vanity. The bait is seized by 
every daughter of Eve — my lady of lavish purse, 
and the poor wage-earner whose scant hire hardly 
suffices to meet the necessities of life. It is under- 
stood that " between manufacturers, dealers, and 
pattern-makers is a co-operative system, and that 
' women have become the victims of trade.' " 

The woman who is dressed in the latest style, 
however unbecoming, is considered well dressed. 
That a stylish dress is in no sense a beautiful dress 
is proved by the .fact that when out of date it is outre 
and grotesque. Could the woman who is always 
stylishly dressed make a collection of gowns which 
have been worn during a period of twenty years, 
she would have an absurd array. Yet each of 
them was in its day deemed beautiful. Public- 
taste will never be educated while it follows an 
aimless caprice and the dictates of trades-unions. 



208 THE WELL.DRESSED WOMAN. 

Intelligent thought must be given to the needs of 
the body and to the laws which govern art in other 
departments. Taste must bo educated by those 
who have gained, through the study of the beauti- 
ful, the power of discrimination. Gowns made in 
accordance with artistic principles are never out of 
date, for the beautiful is eternal — the same yester- 
day, to-day, and forever. 

Art is practical and logical. It has been defined 
as common sense. Artistic dress is common sense 
in dress. An artistic gown is, first of all, comfort- 
able ; in form, texture, and color it is adapted to 
the build, complexion, and character of the wearer. 
Its structure never depends upon "the latest 
style," nor upon " what is worn," but upon what is 
becoming. 

It would be easy and pleasant if some trusted 
connoisseur could formulate a set of rules b} T which 
we might manufacture artistic gowns, just as our 
milliners and modistes manufacture conventional 
gowns. This can never be done, for the reason 
that individuality io the chief point in artistic dress. 
One cannot give a recipe for an artistic garment 
as for a plum-pudding. All the highest and best 
things are beyond the scope of rules. We can 
only study the philosophy of dress with a view 



ART PRINCIPLES APPLIED TO DRESS. 209 

to an independent application of its principles. 
Guided by these principles, we shall never be led 
into the bizarre or absurd. 

Conventional dress has steadfastly ignored the 
laws of health and beauty. It thrusts the same 
mould upon women of every age, size, complexion, 
and build. The aim is " the display of adornment, 
not the decoration of the human figure, which is 
hidden away contemptuously, and serves as the 
wooden and padded frames in a milliner's show- 
room. Nothing can be less satisfactory or less 
artistic than the sj-stem that now reigns of loading 
the figure with clothes, the aim being to use the 
figure to display the clothes and not the clothes to 
display the figure." 

The principles from which the laws of dress are 
derived are found in the structure of the human 
form, and, until we have learned to appreciate the 
functions and beaut}- of the body, no advance can 
be made in its vesture. Conventional dress lias 
divided the feminine form into two distinct sec- 
tions ; the trunk, which is encased in a bodice, and 
the legs, which are transformed by stiff petticoats 
and skirts info a solid, immovable mass, sometimes 
resembling in outline a beehive, sometimes a bell, 
sometimes a fan, sometimes a donkey with pan- 



210 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

niers. The first mistake is the arbitrary division 
of the body into sections. We must endeavor to 
think of it as one and indivisible ; there is no waist- 
line in the body, and therefore the mantua-maker 
has no right to make one in gowns. The conven- 
tional bodice contradicts the laws of nature, be- 
cause it confines a mobile trunk and an elastic skin 
in an unyielding, inelastic casing. This is accom- 
plished by cutting the back of the bodice into 
ugly, geometric shapes, known as "forms," which 
are then carefully pieced together after the manner 
of a patchwork bed-quilt. The front of the bodice 
is tightly drawn over the chest and fitted under the 
bust and over the abdomen by biasses and darts. 
This device, when elaborately boned, is tortured 
together by hooks or buttons, suggestive of a sur- 
geon's feat in splintering. The beauty of the tex- 
tile is lost by this process. The shopkeeper, if he 
would sell his goods, does not display meagre 
clippings, but is careful to arrange them in soft 
folds which display the beaut}' of light and shade. 
A tight bodice destroys the flexibility of the trunk 
and prevents the delicate play of the muscles. 

The clothing of the lower portion of the body is 
based upon another false principle. It ignores the 
natural outline of the legs and the laws of motion. 




AN EVENING DREBS. 



This gown conforms to the laws of health, yet is not unlike prevailing 
styles. The design may be of service to those who prefer conventional usage. 



ART PRINCIPLES APPLIED TO DRESS. 211 

Mr. Percy Fitzgerald, in tlie London Art Journal, 
gives us the principle which regulates the clothing 
of the lower limbs : " The whole conception of the 
human figure, it will be found, is connected with 
the idea of motion ; the solid portion or trunk 
being raised above the ground and balanced, as it 
were, on the two extremities, on which it is sup- 
ported alternately. The lower limbs are therefore 
as much in motion as the arms ; all dress, there- 
fore, should be conceived on the principle of this 
airiness, and anything that should convey the idea 
that the lower part of the frame was as solid as the 
trunk would be false. But this is what is done on 
the present system, where a solid pyramidal struct- 
ure moves along, worked by some interior ma- 
chinery. Nothing more ungainly can be conceived 
than this attempt at motion under a cage or fram- 
ing of buckram, which really conveys the idea of a 
series of awkward kickings. . . . Were this detest- 
able and unbecoming armor away, the dress would 
fall about the figure in full folds of sufficient thick- 
ness and abundance for warmth and convenience, 
or of such amount as to convey the idea that the 
lower limbs arc there with a dress or covering over 
them. That such is the true principle there can be 
no doubt. ... In classic models the dress from the 



212 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

waist to the feet takes the outline really of a long 
oval or fish-shape. The draperies fall into elegant 
curves, and the whole is pleasing to the eye as 
compared with the triangular outlines of our own 
times. . . . The aim of clothing should be not a 
figure cased in clothes, each portion being accurately 
fitted with a case of its own, from the neck to the feet, 
but a draped figure." 

It is objected to this conception of woman's dress 
as a drapery, instead of a second skin, that the 
beautiful curves of the body are lost. This objec- 
tion ignores the fact that the curves and lines of 
fashionable dress are not the curves and lines of 
nature, but of a falsified body, and that delicate 
motions are impossible in a tight casing. 

The beauty of Grecian dress, while above the 
reach of criticism and of changing fashion, does 
not meet the needs of our climate and of our civil- 
ization. Yet the study of classic art helps to 
correct our perverted ideas of form and drapery. 
In classic art we find no precedent for the modern 
idea of producing " a fine figure ;" the form is sug- 
gested but not defined. We get no hint of " a tidy 
fit," nor that a stout woman's apparent bulk is de- 
creased by tight clothing. From head to heels 
dress is one and indivisible. The nearest approach 



ART' PRINCIPLES APPLIED TO DRESS. 213 

to a waist is made by confining the fulness which 
starts from the neck by means of a soft girdle 
under the bust and shoulders. A girdle at this 
point gives greater length and elegance to the 
limbs and bisects the form less than the modern 
waist-line, which is placed at the narrowest diam- 
eter of the trunk. 

The drapery of antique art falls from the shoul- 
ders, and the hips serve as natural points of 
support. Falling from the shoulders and hips, 
drapery takes the long curves parallel to the direc- 
tion of the figure, which harmonize with the erect 
structure of the body. It is a rule of art that 
parallelism produces the greatest beauty in line. 
For this reason, horizontal stripes and trimmings 
should be carefully avoided, and a girdle or a scarf 
should harmonize, not contrast, with the color of 
the gown, in order to be unobtrusive. 

The woman who would be well dressed must 
keep constantly in mind the long, oval contour of 
tlif feminine figure and dress so that this outline 
will be preserved. The unnecessary seams and 
darts of the conventional dressmaker must be 
avoided or concealed. Festoons and draperies 
should be disposed with reference to the points of 
radiation in the body, the hips and shoulders. 



214 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

It may not be always practicable in modern dress 
to have no dividing line between waist and skirt, 
bnt there should be an endeavor to preserve the 
appearance of unity. The division of the gown 
into basques and over-skirts, and the use of many 
different materials, is particularly opposed to the 
idea of unity, and cuts the body into sections 
which seem to move in distinct and unrelated 
parts. 

Much which is considered as handsome attire 
awakens in the artist only pity and contempt. He 
makes war against any form of dress which de- 
stroys the true proportions of the body, interferes 
with its delicate poise or free motion. In this 
vocabulary may be classed the high, tight collar, 
which makes the neck immovable, and the glove- 
fitting bodice, which destroys the flexibility of the 
trunk. The artist condemns street wraps so con- 
structed that the arms must be held as if pinioned 
to the sides; tight sleeves, which make the arms 
look like stuffed sausages and move like pump- 
handles ; sleeves which are puffed high on the 
shoulders or are of the balloon type, because they 
contradict the natural line of the arm ; tight gloves, 
which give to the fingers the expression of jointed 
sticks ; tight, high-heeled shoes and heavy skirts 




The Magazine of Art, Cassell Publishing Company. 
RADIATING CURVES SHOWN IN WTNG OF BIRD AND SHELL BY WALTER CRANE 

Radiation in Nature, a controlling principle in design, is illustrated here. Thf 
lines in the wing and shell spring from a common center. The point of radiation 
is the center of streng-th. 




FIGUR£ TOSHOW THt VALUe - 

OF RHDinriNO CURV£S JM , ?Z> 

THC' D£51GN OF- DRAPCRY ■ fa rffl 




FIGURE TO SnOW TIIK VALUE OF RADIATING CURVES IN THE DESIGN OF 
DRAPERY. BY WALTER CRANE (IN "THE MAGAZINE OK ART"). 

In this design the drapery radiates from the shoulders, ribs, and hips, which 
are centers of vitality ami strength. 



ART PRINCIPLES APPLIED TO DRESS. 215 

with restricting draperies, which prevent easy and 
graceful walking ; long skirts for the street, which 
must either catch the filth of the sidewalk or be 
clumsily carried in the hands ; the muff, which 
necessitates a strained attitude and prevents the 
natural swing of the arms in walking ; any kind of 
bustle, hoop or reed, which dehumanizes the fig- 
ure ; shoulder-trimmings which extend beyond the 
shoulders and make them seem broader than the 
hips ; unnecessary and arbitrary seams in waist- 
forms, and trimmings that emphasize these forms ; 
belts that are like bands and give a sliced look to 
the figure. Starched petticoats, canvas linings, 
and whalebones are utterly inartistic. 

The neck of the gown should follow the line 
where the neck joins the body. The sleeves should 
follow the line where the arms join the shoulder or 
spread from the neck into the shoulder. The waist 
should fall in folds or gathers from the neck or 
shoulders, or "be, in fact, a bit of fabric draped 
about in soft clinging lines." The belt should be 
a soft sash loosely adjusted under the bust; a 
collar should be of soft material and fall from an 
under-waisl over the neck of the dress in full lines. 
The skirt should drop in natural folds following 
i Ik- outline of the body. To produce the best 



216 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

effect the skirt should be unlined and the petticoat 
or foundation should be of soft material. A gown 
en traine is considered graceful for the drawing- 
room, but is an offence to the busy woman. The 
least objectionable gloves are of silk or undressed 
kid ; for winter they should be of warm material. 

The woman who would be well dressed has no 
use for fashion-plates. Her text-books are the 
works of ancient and modern sculpture ; the clas- 
sicism of Flaxman, Canova, and David ; the study 
of picturesque art. We must, however, distinguish 
between pictures which are historical and those 
which are ideal. The works of Paul Veronese, for 
examjDle, represent the dress of a bad period of art. 
The costumes of great masters, however good, are, 
moreover, not to be servilely copied. Cold and 
formal imitation may well be left to the Chinese. 
These works are simply studies for the cultivation 
of individual taste. Guided by such studies we 
shall be able to fashion dress without reference to 
fashion, yet in a becoming and pleasing manner. 

It is obvious that few women have opportunity 
or leisure for individual study and culture. With 
many there can be only a modification of prevail- 
ing styles, or perhaps even an unwilling acceptance. 
Much has been accomplished when the slave is 



ART PRINCIPLES APPLIED TO DRESS. 217 

made conscious of his chains, though not a rivet is 
broken. Much has been accomplished when we 
see the stupidity and atrocity of fashionable dress. 
Our hope is that the time will come when, through 
the culture of the few, the many may be led away 
from perversion of form and imbecility of adorn- 
ment. A practical difficulty in the way of better 
dress is the ignorance and tyranny of the dress- 
making craft. The dressmaker is fettered in the 
bonds of conventionalism, and even those who 
style themselves artistic are entirely ignorant of 
art principles. The customer who ignores prevail- 
ing styles is looked upon with scorn and disap- 
proval. As it is always more difficult to move out 
of the beaten highway, many dressmakers abso- 
lutely refuse to work for those who will not accept 
conventional forms. 

The choice of textures is governed by the figure 
of the wearer. Mr. Russell says : "A slight willowy 
figure, in constant motion, may wear soft stuff and 
clinging draperies. A stout woman should wear 
something in harmony with her bulk— clothes that 
take heavy folds suggestive of dignity and calm. 
It' stout, women would learn to move in grand, slow 
rhythm and wear textures so heavy that the lines of 
their figures were concealed, they would have a 



218 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

grandeur arid dignity that no slender woman could 
hope to attain." A texture which is wiry, harsh, 
and stiff suits neither the slight nor stout. 

The effectiveness of dress depends greatly on the 
delicacy and harmony of its colors. In the study 
of colors we can learn directly from nature's school 
of art. Here the eye may be trained to the truest 
color-sense. In the bark of the oak and the beech 
tree and on the moss-covered fence we see rare 
combinations of gray ; dull russet effects in autumn 
leaf and sedge. The study of minerals and shells 
affords exquisite bits of coloring, while flowers, 
fruit, moths, butterflies, and birds continue the end- 
less scale. The practical difficulty is to harmonize 
nature's schemes of color with the complexion of 
the wearer. The color of the dress must be of 
" the same jDalette " as the complexion. The artist's 
rule is, " Choose only those tints of which a dupli- 
cate may be found in the hair, the eyes, or the 
complexion. A woman with blue-gray eyes and a 
thin, neutral-tinted complexion is never more be- 
comingly dressed than in the blue shades in which 
gray is mixed, for in these complexions there is a 
certain delicate blueness. A brunette is never so 
exquisite as in cream-color, for she has reproduced 
the tinting of her skin in her dress." Mr. Kussell 



ART PRINCIPLES APPLIED TO DRESS. 219 

condemns the general use of black : " Black makes 
the flesh look a little white by contrast, but it 
deepens the shadows in the face and brings lines 
into bolder relief. The only people who look well 
in black are those who are fair and plump, with no 
lines, no cares, in their faces. A woman over forty 
should never wear black. Old ladies should not 
wear black, but soft gray colors. A woman with 
black eyes and hair may wear gray trimmed with 
black." The most delicate and refined coloring is 
produced by harmony. Contrast is violent and 
showy, and must therefore be sparingly used. 

In the ornamentation of dress we must guard 
against over-elaboration, which always suggests 
weakness. Simplicity is a canon of art, but the last 
accepted by the multitude, because of our foolish 
pride and self-assertion. Simplicit} r is beautiful, 
because it is easily understood. Mazes of folds, 
ruffles, festoons, draperies, and jewels produce a 
crowded effect; there is no point of rest. We must 
also be truthful and honest in ornamentation. Our 
decorations are often an idle display and serve no 
purpose. Trimming depends entirely upon the 
structure of dress, and nothing which simulates 
form is admissible, us, for example, braid sewed on 
to imitate a cuff or vest when there is neither curl' 



220 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

nor vest. All artists denounce the button that 
buttons nothing and the bow that ties nothing. 
Kuskin says : " You must not buy yards of useless 
material to make a knot or a flounce of, nor to drag 
behind you on the floor." This rule does not re- 
duce us to Puritan severity. The structure of 
dress usually demands some adornment. The neck 
of the gown, the termination cf the sleeve, the edge 
of a drapery, often requires adornment to give a 
finished appearance. A bow, a knot of ribbon, a 
feather, a jewel, may have its appropriate and legit- 
imate use. In America the pocket-handkerchief is 
used as a decorative object. It is the vehicle for 
displaying a bit of color, delicate embroidery, or 
lace. It is said that the French, with a truer sense 
of the fitness of things, make the handkerchief as 
inconspicuous as possible. Its function assigns it 
to an unobtrusive place. Equally objectionable is 
the custom of ornamenting the face with bits of black 
court-plaster, in order by contrast to show the 
whiteness of the complexion. The court-plaster 
always suggests a blemish of the skin and an 
attempt to conceal it. Powdered hair is never 
beautiful, because it is never in harmony with the 
complexion. 

Simplicity in adornment relieves us from vulgar 



ART PRINCIPLED APPLIED TO DRESS. 221 

displays of jewelry. Jewels used to fasten or finish 
a part of the dress are pleasing; used with no such 
purpose they have been justly called " imbecile 
ornamentation." Jewelry worn on the person is 
more objectionable than when attached to the dress. 
Ear-rings and bracelets are classed with idle deco- 
rations, and the bejewelled hand suggests the bar- 
baric. As we develop a higher form of civilization, 
they must yield to the logic of events and disappear. 
The use of jewels is usually indiscriminate in its 
relation to the color and character of the gown. The 
emerald, sapphire, topaz, and diamond blaze in a 
kind of medley with textiles of every hue and fabric. 
Less jewelry and that which harmonizes with the 
color of the gown is the artistic rule. Diamonds, 
the favorite gem of American women, are condemned 
on account of their " excessive brilliancy and hard- 
ness of light." 

The principles which regulate coift'ure may be 
learned by the consideration of the object or func- 
tion of the hair. " This," Mr. Fitzgerald says, " is 
at once useful and ornamental. It is to be a cover- 
ing for the head as well as a set-off for the face. 
The face is the most important part, to which the 
whole figure should be subordinate; but even more 
subordinate should be the hair. Nothing is more 



222 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN, 

pleasing when properly treated than the hair, 
especially in that softening off towards the edges 
which lends such an effect. Each hair of the head 
offers light and shade and has a variety of surface 
and color ; the boundary, too, is softened away by 
the hair being thinner at the edge — a point where 
wigs all fail, betraying themselves by a coarse and 
abrupt line, causing a harsh contrast and being 
too strong in tone for the delicacy of the face. This 
beautiful material then, the natural covering and 
adornment of the human head, is worthy of being 
emplojed to a higher use than that of setting off 
ribbons, jewels, masses of flowers, and such like." 
It is impossible to dress the hair without in some 
way concealing the beautiful shape of the head. 
The upper part of the head is the place of honor ; 
it is the seat of the organs of reverence ; it there- 
fore seems fitting that this part of the head should 
not be sacrificed by coiffure. The height of the 
body is not augmented by piling the hair on top of 
the head, and the effort to increase stature by this 
means makes the short person look shorter. The 
median line which divides the bod} r into two equal 
parts suggests that the middle of the head is the 
normal line of division of the hair. When the hair 
is brushed straight back the soft shading of the 




HOOP-SKIKT "AUX PANIERS." 
A specimen of conventional beauty. 




TIIE ANI.MAI, FROM WHICH THE AFORESAID STYLE TOOK TTS NAME. 



The hoop-skirt "aux paniers" is an example of the absurd styles which 
Paris fashion-makers have offered an unresisting people in the name of the 

beautiful. Oh, if our w en would only learn that Paris fashions are no1 

necessarily beautiful ! Excesses in dress have always attended periods of piti- 
ful ignorance. In the time of Queen Anne, when this style of crinoline was in 
rogue, the votaries of fashion scorned the thoughl of education For women. 
Addison and Steele were the first to suggest that women mighl read, write, 
and spell correctly without losing their place in society. 



ART PRINCIPLES APPLIED TO DRESS. 223 

face is lost and a bold appearance is given. Neither 
should the hair be drawn, as in the present style, 
carefully up from the neck. This also is a harsh 
disposition, as it reverses the natural direction, and 
suggests an uncomfortable pulling of the hair. The 
hair naturally falls, and the cluster should be at the 
point where the coil can be supported by the 
gathering up of the hair on itself. There is a great 
deal of truth in Mr. Russell's suggestion that char- 
acter is shown by the arrangement of the hair. 
Worn low on the neck it indicates a romantic 
nature ; a little higher, it shows a domestic turn of 
mind ; at the crown of the head, which is the 
classic style, the intellectual is suggested ; and 
worn on top it is stylish. 

The shape of bonnets and hats depends greatly 
on the disposition of the hair. Again we quote 
from Mr. Fitzgerald: " We should always have in 
mind the functions which these coverings must ful- 
fil. They are not adornments. The purpose of a 
1 inn net is to keep the head warm, and that of a hat, 
which is a summer covering, is mainly to fence off 
the rays of the sun. The width of the brim should 
be regulated by its intended function. All excess 
is unmeaning. Tall and peaked crowns which 
rise ,a an angle from tin; brims have somehow ii 



224 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

stiff air ; the surface of a crown and brim should 
be one, the brim being no more than the edge of 
the crown a little prolonged. When the true sys- 
tem is carried out, what is presented is the head 
with a cover ; whereas under the false system it is 
a covering supported by a head ; the covering has 
no relation to the head, and claims attention on its 
own merits. Indeed it is scarcely fair to criticise 
the existing coverings, which honestly do not 
strictly pertain to any useful end, but are no more 
than ornaments carried on the head. Instead of the 
head being the point of honor, the apex of intelli- 
gence, which it is the function of the body to carry 
and to be subsidiary to, the interest is transferred 
to a mass of inanimate matter, which becomes the 
point of attention." Oscar Wilde recommends soft 
felt hats for both summer and winter wear. No 
striking color should ever decorate the front of the 
hat. It puts the complexion to an unnecessary 
test, and diverts the eye from the face, the true 
point of interest. An artist would saj', it throws 
the picture out of focus. 

It will be asked, of what advantage is artistic 
dress over conventional, since it demands study 
and thought ? We would save time by going to 
the mantua-maker and dressing in the style which 



ART PRINCIPLES APPLIED TO DRESS. 225 

fashion determines, without the trouble of indi- 
vidual thought. Women who have a high purpose 
in life, and who despise the fashion-book, yet give 
it a passive acceptance because they feel that such 
study is unworthy. Yet beauty in dress ought not 
to be considered a trivial subject, since it is the 
avenue to a healthful, self-respecting, God-rever- 
encing womanhood. 

Dress is not now ranked among the nobler arts. 
It never can be while it is conventional. Since it 
is of all arts the most difficult, its study ought not 
to be beneath the genius of our great artists. The 
stud}- of art in dress has a higher value than being 
an end in itself. By it the student is brought into 
sympathy with the art world. Through it we may 
teach simplicity, nobility, purity, refinement, and 
reverence of nature. Art principles applied to 
dress relieve us of ostentation, pretence, and folly 
of ornament, and from the belittling influence of 
the tyranny of fashion. Conformity to conventional 
usages, ;is a principle of action, has a debasing in- 
fluence on the character. Non-conformity, even in 
dress, awakens a spirit of inventiveness and begets 
liberty of thought. 

The laws of art in dress are discerned only when 
we have learned to honor God's thought in the for- 



226 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

mation of tlie human body, and as the sensibilities 
are chastened and refined. When we have caught 
the truly artistic thought, we see that it is one with 
the spiritual. Paul spoke as an artist as well as a 
prophet: "Not the outward adorning and plaiting 
of hair and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of 
apparel, but the adornment of a meek and quiet 
spirit." 



CHAPTEK XVI. 

THE MORAL SIGNIFICANCE OF DRESS. 

"Fashion has its value as a moral sign-post, and supplies 
the historian, the philosopher, and the novelist with a guide 
to the prevailing ideas of the time." 

"The enormities of female attire have reached a point to 
which it is not morally right for a conscientious woman to 
conform." 

The story of Eden represents the apron of fig- 
leaves as the device of a guilty conscience. The 
evolutionist, on the contrary, regards the first 
crude attempt at garments as an indication of prog- 
ress, marking the development of the brute into a 
higher and intellectual order of being. Whether 
man is by nature a naked or a clothed animal, it is 
certaiD thai clothes are an importani part, not only 
of civilization, but of our individuality. Professor 
William James, in Ids principles of "Psychology," 
says: "The body is the innermost part of the 

227 



228 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

material self in each of us. The clothes corne next. 
The old saying that the human person is composed of 
three parts — soul, body, and clothes — is more than 
a joke. We so appropriate our clothes and identify 
ourselves with them that there are few of us who, 
if asked to chose between having a beautiful body 
clad in raiment perpetually shabby and unclean, 
and having an ugly and blemished form always 
spotlessly attired, would not hesitate a moment be- 
fore making a decisive reply." 

It is always assumed that love of adornment and 
display is a folly peculiar to women. The analogy 
of nature leads to the conclusion that display is 
more distinctively masculine than feminine. Among 
birds the male, the courter, has a brilliant coloring, 
while the female is comparatively colorless. The 
same is true of many animals. In the insect world 
the male is often beautifully marked, and in certain 
species of fish he is distinguished by ornamental 
appendages. Among savage races the male is 
decked in feathers, beads, and war-paint, the female 
unadorned. The history of costume shows that 
there have been as many absurdities among men as 
women. The tight corsets, complicated hair-dress- 
ing, starched ruffs, buckram stuffings, monstrous 
tuberosities, scarlet velvet, gold embroideries, long, 



THE MORAL SIGNIFICANCE OF DRESS. 229 

graceful plumes, costly jewels, and gorgeous knee- 
buckles of male attire reveal the fact that meu 
have sacrificed comfort and money to gratify per- 
sonal vanity. 

The history of savage tribes proves that dress 
has developed from decoration. Neither the need 
of protection nor feelings of modesty have prompted 
the covering of the body, but the crude beginning- 
has been the desire for ornament. Herbert Spencer 
tells us of the Orinoco Indian, " who, though quite 
regardless of bodily comfort, will yet labor for a 
fortnight to purchase pigment wherewith to make 
himself admired ; and the same woman, who 
would not hesitate to leave her hut without a 
fragment of clothing on, would not commit such 
-j, breach of decorum as to go out uupaiuted. " 
Still more forcible is the account of Africans, 
who "strutted about in their goat-skin mantles 
when the weather was fine, but, when it was not, 
folded tln'in up and went about naked, shiv- 
ering in the rain." 

Displays in dress characterize a savage race. 
The bejewelled and bedizened toilet of many civil- 
ized women recalls the porcupine quills, feathers, 
eagle plumage, and necklace of bear-claws with 
which tie- Bavage adorns his person. The intri- 



230 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

cacies of lace and puffs of the modern overdressed 
woman are not a difference in kind, but simply of 
method, from the gorgeous adornment of her sav- 
age progenitors. A purer taste is the result and 
the index of a higher phase of development. 

Style of dress is an unfailing indication of the 
stage of civilization to which a nation has attained. 
In applying this law to the individual we readily see 
that the character of the dress is the external sign 
of the social, intellectual, and moral status of the 
wearer. The wardrobe indicates neatness, order, 
modesty, gentleness, elegance, and refinement, or 
untidiness, disorder, immodesty, ostentation, ex- 
travagance, and vulgarity. The taste and character 
of a woman may be read in the color, texture, 
and cut of the bodice, just as Cuvier, with a single 
bone, could build up the animal to which it must 
belong. Poets, philosophers, and painters in all 
ages have recognized the moral qualities of dress. 
Innocence and chastity are portrayed in robes of 
lily-white. The harlot is represented in " purple 
and scarlet color, and decked in gold and precious 
stones and pearls." The true nature always be- 
trays itself in its wardrobe. Queen Elizabeth ap- 
pears to the casual reader as a woman of wonderful 
insight and personal bravery. One glimpse at her 




DESIGN BY E. T. JEWETT. 

The Savage Progenitor. 




DESIGN i:v v.. T. JEWBTT. 
Not a difference in kind bu1 simply <»(' method 



THE MORAL SIGNIFICANCE OF DRESS. 231 

wardrobe, its stomachers, its farthingales, and its 
eighty wigs, reveals her real character — a weak, 
immoral, vain, capricious woman. Bacon, the 
philosopher, the intellectual prodig}^ shows him- 
self in the prickly pillory of his ruff and in his 
trunk-hose " a man whose moral dignity was not 
on a level with his intellectual penetration." 
Cromwell, inspired with the noble and disinter- 
ested purpose of rescuing his country from the 
hands of tyranny, appeared in Parliament in yeo- 
man costume. When success had turned his head 
and personal ambition had taken possession of his 
soul, the change of heart was seen in his personal 
appearance. That he secretly coveted kingly 
power was shown in the courtly garments with 
which he arrayed himself. 

These illustrations of the sympathy between cos- 
fcume and the soul are repeated on a larger scale 
in the history of nations. National life begins 
in Freedom, simplicity, self-denial, and vigor. As 
power and affluence are gained, luxuriousness, 
enervating habits, tyranny, sap the life-blood. 
When the consummation of self-indulgence and 
oppression is reached, the end conies in destruc- 
tion. The nation is purged through tin- horrors 

of pestilence ami war. These times of excess have 



232 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

been marked by voluptuousness and extravagance 
in dress. Prophets and philosophers have uttered 
their warnings and entreaties against " these out- 
ward signs of an inward spiritual curse," and have 
seen in them the portent of impending doom. 
When purity has been restored through the casti- 
gation of suffering, the reaction has always shown 
itself in simplicity of dress. This is the story of 
ancient, mediaeval, and modern history. The study 
of national dress is a pitiful comment on human 
progress, hardly less sickening than the study of 
its wars and rapine. 

Often state legislation has interposed to abate 
extravagance. The attempt has always been a fail- 
ure, because legislation has been directed, not 
really at extravagance, but at the preservation of 
class distinctions. No yeoman could wear furs 
other than those of otters, foxes, and conies. No 
woman under the degree of knight's daughter or 
wife might wear corse wrought with gold. A 
certain class could not wear silk and laces. 
Women not of noble rank were forbidden to wear 
velvet hoods, et cetera, et cetera. Human nature 
has always rebelled at such arbitrary distinctions 
and found a way to evade them. Sumptuary laws 
will never regulate dress. It can onlj r be reached 



THE MORAL SIGNIFICANCE OF DRESS. 233 

through an enlightened conscience. Are we not, 
then, approaching the subject by a wrong method in 
undertaking an external change? Why not work 
at the heart, and when that is enlightened the ap- 
parel will take care of itself? This is the scientific 
method. It is also the moral and spiritual method. 
Women will never come into a correct style of 
dress through a change of fashion, but through 
moral restoration and instruction in its application 
to the practical affairs of life. The fundamental 
principle of the crusade against irrational dress is 
one with the crusade against intemperance — a 
pure soul in a pure body. Being a moral issue, the 
evolution of this reform is a slow and painful 
process. Dress is a part of the woman question. It 
does not savor of the ballot-box, but it does savor 
of liberty of thought. The slavish following of 
fashion-plates stifles all originality, inventiveness, 
and aesthetic perception. Those who have emanci- 
pated themselves from the bondage of conventional 
drt'ss have liberty of thought in other directions. 

While originally the love of personal adornment 
was common to both sexes, it must be admitted 
that it is now the monopoly of fche fair sex. Van- 
ity ami the display of personal beauty are be- 
setting sins. 'I'd gratify this passion the poor girl 



234 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

often sells her own soul, while her more favored 
sister sacrifices it to the trivialities of shopping and 
social parade. Even intelligent women put adorn- 
ment before comfort, and belittle the soul by de- 
votion to changing and absurd fashions. These 
facts are significant, — they point to a low stage of 
social development. The}- are a remnant not only 
of mediaeval theology, which regarded woman as an 
inferior, but also of mediaeval sociology, which re- 
garded her as the property and plaything of man. 
Esther, arraying herself for the critical and sensual 
eyes of the king, is a type of the modern woman, 
decking herself in all manner of finery to please 
the eye of her lord and master, man. It is even 
now affirmed that the cultivation of personal beauty 
is the legitimate pursuit of Avoman, to the end that 
she may attract, and that personal beauty is her 
chief charm. The true dignity of woman will never 
be appreciated while it is held that her aim should 
be to attract and to enslave by attracting. Inor- 
dinate love of admiration is always the sign of 
degradation of character. The lowest round of 
this degradation is reached when admiration is 
sought by displays of physical beaut}-. 

The same desire for approbation and display may 
be traced in the education of women. Accomplish- 



THE MORAL SIGNIFICANCE OF DRESS. 235 

ments which attract take the place of substantial, 
practical, and scientific training. There is no heresy 
which women ought to fight more persistently than 
this sophistry of personal beauty and adornment 
as a means for social advancement. Satan skilfully 
deceives even the elect lady, and piously exhorts 
women to adopt a charming toilet in order to make 
home attractive. We are advised, on rainy days 
especially, to don gowns of brilliant hue, and bows 
of gorgeous color, to gladden the heart of husband 
and sou who come in jaded from a day of toil. 
Could advice be more absurd ! It is a sweet, cheer- 
ful, intelligent soul that makes a happy home. If 
women do not possess this, they may array them- 
selves in all the hues of the rainbow, and home will 
not be attractive. Tired husbands are not rested 
by red bows ; recreant husbands and wayward sons 
are not kept at home by milliner}- arts. 

The cultivation of beauty is legitimate for man 
and woman when it is sought as the expression of 
intelligence and lofty ideals. The laws of external 
beauty follow as a corollary of inward beauty of 
the spirit. There is no surer way to destroy real 
beauty than to delight in personal charms. The 
smirk of self-consciousness, the smile of self-a] pro- 
bation, will mar the most perfect features and the 



236 THE WELL DRESSED WOMAN. 

most exquisite coloring. No one who is simple 
and pure at heart can study personal beauty or 
adornment from motives of personal vanity or with 
the thought of drawing the attention of others. 

Physical beautj* as the manifestation of physical 
and moral rectitude is quite different from physical 
beauty as a lure for social advancement. Our fash- 
ions originate among the frivolous if not shameless 
classes of the Old World, who have no true moral 
sense and whose aim is sensual attraction. They 
are accepted by all classes of American society, and 
so sensual dress becomes the garb of the respecta- 
ble. If we are to be ruled by arbitrary fashions, 
surely they should be set by those who are pure 
and true at heart. 

In considering the ethics of dress we must study 
its relation to character, to morality, and to the 
legitimate use of time and money. 

The judgments of science pronounced against 
woman's dress from a hygienic standpoint are 
judgments against it from a moral standpoint. The 
question of ethics concerns the strictures of dress. 
A shoe which is too tight is a moral loss not sim- 
ply because it cripples the working power of the 
brain, but because it makes the mind ever conscious 
of the body, "by reason of its uncomfortableness." 



THE MORAL SIGNIFICANCE OF DRESS. 237 

Mr. B. O. Flower regards as the gravest charge 
against woman's dress the fact that its stricture 
produces physical discomforts and disease, " which 
chain the mind to animality when, unfettered, it 
should be unfolding in spiritual strength and 
glory." In the crime against posterit}*, enfeebled 
and weakened, body and soul, by the dress of 
mothers, he counts the moral loss as greatest. "A 
mother whose thoughts have been voluntarily or 
involuntarily held in the atmosphere of the physi- 
cal nature necessarily imparts to her child a legacy 
of animality which, like the corpse of a dead being, 
dings to tlif soul throughout its pilgrimage.'' 

The fashion of petticoats and dress- skirts has 
had a potent influence in the formation of woman's 
character. 

Miss Frances Cobbe says in the Contemporary 
Review : " It has often been remarked that the sa- 
gacity of Romish seminarists is exhibited by their 
practice of compelling boys destined for the priest- 
hood to flounder along the streets in their long 
gowns, and never permitting them to cast them 

aside, or play in (he close-fitting clothes wherein 
English lads enjoy their crickel ami Eoot-ball. 
'I'll,- obstruction to free action, though perhaps 
slight in its. 'It', yd constantly maintained, gradually 



238 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

tames down the wildest spirits to the level of eccle- 
siastical decorum." 

The heresy of masculine superiority begins in the 
nursery when the boy attains the dignity of trou- 
sers. He rejoices in boyhood, and looks upon petti- 
coats with contempt. He has absolute physical 
freedom, and can enjoy the active, invigorating ex- 
ercise upon which courage, independence, and bon- 
homie largely depend. The little girl looks at 
her brother with envy, and mourns that she is not a 
boy. No man would for an instant submit to the 
bondage and restraint of skirts. Unable to go out 
of doors except under the condition of favorable 
weather and social proprieties, woman becomes a 
kind of hot-house plant in temperament, and devel- 
ops the traits of physical weakness, irritability, 
and nervousness. Moralists therefore charge upon 
the restrictions of dress the fretfulness, ill-temper, 
and peevishness which darken many households. 
The question of ethics is concerned in the danger 
to which petticoats and the stricture of dress ex- 
pose the wearer. Unable to protect herself in 
times of peril by running or jumping, dependence 
and cowardice are inevitable. 

Mrs. Phelps Ward comments thus on the iniquity 
of long skirts : " "When I see women stay indoors 




ST. OKCU.W. KY It \IMI IBL. 



Observe the easy fall of the drapery and the points from which it radiates 
jind <•< .nt r;i-.t the round finish of tin- neck witli thehiph stiff collars of modern 
dress. There Is no appearance of a "tidj flt" or a " trim figure" in the bodice 
f>f the St. Cecilia, FTer gown is n model which we may safely follow. 



THE MORAL SIGNIFICANCE OF DRESS. 239 

the entire forenoon because their morning dresses 
trail the ground, and indoors all the afternoon 
because there comes up a shower, and the walking- 
dress would soak and drabble ; or when I see the 
( workingwoman ' standing at the counter, or at the 
teacher's desk, from day to dark, in the drenched 
boots and damp stockings which her muddy skirts, 
flapping from side to side, have compelled her to 
endure ; when I see her, a few weeks thereafter, 
g< ling to Dr. Clarke for treatment, as a consequence ; 
when I find, after the most patient experiment, 
that, in spite of stout rubbers, water proof gaiters, 
and dress skirt three or four inches from the 
ground, an 'out-of-door' girl is compelled to a 
general change of clothing each individual time 
that she returns from her daily walks in the 
summer rain ; when I see a woman climbing up- 
stairs with her baby in one arm, and its bowl of 
bread and milk in the other, and see her tripping 
on lier dress at every stair (if, indeed, baby, bowl, 
bread, milk, ami mother do not go down in 
universal chaos; it is only from the efforts of long 
skill ami experience on the part of the mother in 
performing that acrobatic teat); when physicians 

tell me what fearful jars and strains these sn.hlen 
jerks of the body from stumbling on the dress-hem 



240 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

impose upon a woman's intricate organism, and 
how much less injurious to her a direct fall would 
be than this start and rebound of nerve and 
muscle, and how the strongest man would suffer 
from such accidents ; and when they further assure 
me of the amount of calculable injury wrought 
upon our sex by the weight of skirting brought 
upon the hips, and by thus making the seat of all 
the vital energies the pivot of motion and centre of 
endurance ; when I see woman's skirts, the shortest 
of them, lying (when they sit down) inches deep 
along the foul floors, which man, in delicate ap- 
preciation of our concessions to his fancy in such 
respects, has inundated with tobacco juice, and 
from which she sweeps up and carries to her home 
the germs of stealthy pestilences ; when I see a 
ruddy, romping school-girl, in her first long dress, 
beginning to avoid coasting on her double-runner, 
or afraid of the stone walls in the blueberry fields, 
or standing aloof from the game of ball, or turning 
sadly away from the ladder which her brother 
is climbing to the cherry tree, or begging for 
him to assist her over the gunwale of a boat ; 
when I read of the sinking of steamers at sea, 
with ' nearly all the women and children on 
board,' and the accompanying comments, 'every 



THE MORAL SIGNIFICANCE OF DRESS. 241 

effort was made to assist the women up the masts 
and out of danger until help arrived, but they could 
not climb, and we were forced to leave them to their 
fate ; ' or when I hear the Avail with which a mill- 
ion lips take up the light words of the loafer on 
the Portland wharves when the survivors of the 
Atlantic passed : ' Not a woman among them all — 
my God ! ' — when I consider these things I feel that 
I have ceased to deal with blunders in dress and have 
entered the category of crime. (It is not tobesup- 
)osed that women properly dressed from infancy, 
and acquiring the freedom and courage which a 
proper mode of dress imparts, would have met such 
a death in such a wholesale manner.)" 

It is a travesty on the sacred influence of a 
mother that her authority should be satirized as 
petticoat government. Petticoat government will 
be the synonym of weakness as long as woman's 
dress incapacitates her for active exertion. 

The most deplorable result of this training in 
helplessness is the spirit of coquetry which has 
grown out of it. Dependence and cowardice 
learned in actual experience, become, in time, the 
art i»i' diplomacy, Eor the expert man-charmer will 
even Feign dependence and cowardice in order to 
tickle masculine vanity. 



242 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

To the fashion of petticoats we may trace the 
great difference which educators observe in the con- 
cepts of boys and girls. A boy, accustomed to long 
tramps in the open fields, to out-of-door amusement 
and avocations, is familiar with the trees and 
plants of the forest, the song of the wood-bird, va- 
rieties of fish, insect and animal life, etc. This early 
and familiar acquaintance with nature gives him a 
storehouse of beautiful pictures. It is an object- 
lesson in physics and biology, and is the beginning 
of scientific study. A girl naturally has the con- 
cepts of the door-yard and lawn. Glimpses of the 
sky, house-plants, green groceries, canary-birds, 
are her chief studies in nature. The concepts of a 
girl's mind depend upon her environment ; those 
of the boy depend upon his environment. Sex has 
nothing to do with concepts. 

It is hardly possible to attend a fashionable ball 
without a suggestion of the relation of woman's 
dress to morality. The exposure of person is so 
unchaste that good men turn away witli shame. 
Mothers and young girls to whom society looks for 
inspiration in virtue are the butt of coarse joke 
and witticism. Miss Frances Willard says ; " Alas 
that the time has come when, in the so-called best 
society of this Christian republic, reputable 




ISABELLA, LAD'S BOMEBSET. 



THE MORAL SIGNIFICANCE OF DRESS. 243 

women will appear in such costume as makes it 
difficult for sons and brothers to keep the White 
Cross pledge ! Alas that in this Christian re- 
public organizatious for social purity must adopt 
as one specification of their pledge for women, ' I 
promise by the help of God to be modest in dress'!" 
The great no-dress of society is excused because 
it is the custom of the social world, since it is cus- 
tom which establishes the law of modesty in dress. 
The savage who goes about unclothed is not im- 
modest, while the Oriental woman who goes about 
with face uncovered is immodest. The universal 
custom of civilization has established the law that 
the covering of the body is essential to modesty ; 
the only exceptions to this law are among the 
demi-monde and among the beau-momle. The 
former expose the person for base purposes. 
There can be no exceptions of hours or places 
which exempt fashionable society from the prevail- 
ing law of the land. In that enlightened kingdom 
where ;> de*collete" dress is necessary for presenta- 
tion at court, and where a dinner-party and ball 
call for full dress, which means "the great no- 
dress," gambling lias become the recreation of 
fashionable life. These are flagrant violations of 
tlie law of chastity. There a re more subtle and sen- 



244 THE WELL-JJRESSED WOMAN. 

eral violations of this law in the every-day dress 
of women. The tailor-made denizen of society is 
the exponent also of a low state of morals. The 
tailor-made gown has been regarded by some as a 
missionary agent, teaching simplicity and freedom 
from ornamentation. But it is a style which boldly 
defines the outlines of a falsified body. The 
Chinese, in their loose sacques, are shocked at the 
effrontery of Western taste which permits such 
exaggeration and obtrusiveness. 

Allusion has been made to the subject of per- 
sonal vanity, and this is one of the most subtle 
questions connected with the ethics of dress. The 
education of the human race in personal vanity is 
systematic. It is a part of prenatal culture. The 
dominant feeling of expectant motherhood during 
those weeks when eveiy emotion leaves its imprint 
on the physique and character of the helpless 
child is not that of high thinking and holy aspira- 
tion ; mother-love manifests itself principally upon 
fashioning a dainty wardrobe and upon the intri- 
cacies of a baby-basket. 

Mothers are themselves responsible for the 
vanity which they may deplore in their daughters. 
The atmosphere of the home is too largely one of 
perpetual millinery and mantua-making. The 



THE MORAL SIGNIFICANCE OF DRESS. 245 

latest fashions are scrupulously followed, while 
feathers, laces, and jewels complete the toilet of 
little babies. The dress of 3'oung children is often 
so exquisite that continual caution is necessary to 
prevent its injury, and play is robbed of sponta- 
neity and activity. A mother who had educated 
her children to all these punctilities of dress said, 
" I regret so much the exquisite wardrobe of my 
little children. I see now that it hurt their 
character." The dress of little girls should be as 
simple and substantial as that of boys. Every 
thing which prevents activity and fosters vanity 
should bi' conscientiously avoided. Love of dress 
is also fostered by the passion for dolls, which is 
s;ii<l to be inborn in every right-minded girl. Doll- 
playing is really doll-dressing. Every bit of gew- 
gaw is eagerly sought to bedeck this miniature 
travesty of a tine lady. The doll-mother is but a 
I iid] ill icy of the child-mother. If doll-playing is 
the legitimate occupation of girlhood, we ought to 

have dolls which do not cultivate a taste for wasp- 
waists and the trivialities of Fashion. 

What an amount of time, that precious material 
of which life is made, do women sacrifice to love of 
dress! Shopping expeditions in search of the 

finest texture ami the newest shade exhaust body 



246 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

and bewilder brain. Hours are consumed in 
matching ribbon, wool, and silk ; hours are spent in 
consultation with the dressmaker, and in the fabri- 
cation of the wardrobe. The more personal details 
of the toilet, the frizzing of hair and the polishing 
of finger-nails, consume an appalling portion of 
time. One could solve a problem in Euclid while 
some women are adjusting hat, crimps, and veil. 
No one has better set forth the intellectual and 
spiritual loss which comes through this all absorb- 
ing passion for dress than Mrs. Phelps Ward. 
" ' I spent one hundred hours,' said an educated 
and cultivated lad}' recently — and she said it with- 
out a blush of shame or a tremor of self-deprecia- 
tion — ' I spent just one hundred hours in embroid- 
ering my winter suit. I could not afford to have it 
done. I took it up from time to time. It took me 
a hundred hours.' One hundred hours ! One could 
almost learn a language, or make the acquaintance 
of a science, or apprentice one's self to a business, 
or nurse a consumptive to the end of her suffer- 
ings, or save a soul, in one hundred well-selected 
hours. One — hundred — hours ! " 

In the division of labor the care of the clothing 
comes naturally to woman. We do not undervalue 
the avocation of the needle- upon which the com- 



THE MORAL SIGNIFICANCE OF DRESS. 247 

fort of the family depends. "We do urge that there 
should be discrimination as to sewing which is 
rational and necessary, and that which is purely 
frivolous. 

Waste of time goes hand in hand with waste of 
money. Extravagance in displays of dress is a sin 
common to rich and poor, and is not less pitiful in 
one than in the other. It is easier to see this folly 
and madness in the cheap trinkets of the poor girl 
than in the costly baubles of the rich, but the 
principle is exactly the same in each. It is wast- 
ing on the lower, sensuous gratifications the gifts 
which might be put to higher uses of mind and 
spirit. Ruskin says: "There can be no question 
that all money we spend on the forms of dress at 
present worn is, so far as any good purpose is 
concerned, wholly lost." A recent custom-house 
report gives the entry of laces and precious stones 
to the value of £25,722,049. This makes no ac- 
count of the laces and jewels which are entered as 
personal property and smuggled in, and which 
would probably raise the amount one half. Bus- 
kin says: "The bills for dresses worn at one party 
would pay the national debt." 

Time and money are nowhere more foolishly 
wasted than in gratifying the passion for dainty 



248 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

underclothing. All grades of embroidery, from 
the cheap and vulgar Hamburg to exquisite Valen- 
ciennes, is lavished upon it. All manner of frills 
and ruffles and tucks are employed. Artistically 
considered, this show is illegitimate. Under- 
clothing serves only the purposes of warmth and 
decency. Its ends are purely practical and utili- 
tarian. It is a law of art that ornamentation is for 
the eye. To ornament the underclothing which 
regales only the eyes of the laundress is as idle as 
for a painter to ornament the back of his canvas. 
It may be likened to Ruskin's '-golden plough- 
shares and bas-reliefs on millstones." If reform 
were carried in this direction alone, what time 
might be secured for study, what money might be 
saved for books and art ! 

Millions of exquisite birds are sacrificed every 
year for the adornment of women. "A consign- 
ment to a single London dealer, not long ago, 
consisted of 32,000 dead humming birds, 80,000 
aquatic birds, and 800,000 pairs of bird-wings. All 
of this to adorn ladies' hats, and this is but one 
firm and a single consignment." 

Extravagance and vanity intrude even into the 
most sacred hours of bereavement and grief. The 
solemn experiences of life are reduced to mere 




i:v l i: \ INOE1 



l-'r;i Ajigelico is pre eininenth fclie artisl of pure, rlevoul nature. The angel 
given here is an illustration of the truth thai character expresses itself In the 
work of our bands. The pose of the figure and the Lines of drapery are chaste 
and trui-. Omit the halo, the trumpet, and the wings, and the angel of the 
fifteenth century is a suitable model for the maiden of the nineteenth. 



THE MORAL SIGNIFICANCE OF DRESS. 249 

conventionalities by the fashion of mourning gar- 
ments. The grade of affliction is proclaimed by 
the texture and depth of the veil and the width of 
the handkerchief border. At a time when the soul 
shrinks from vulgar gaze a new and unaccustomed 
attire attracts attention and makes the wearer con- 
scious of herself. Could there be a more incon- 
gruous juxtaposition of words than these — fashion- 
able mourning? The poor widow often takes her 
last dollar for mourning garments even when her 
children are crying for bread and shoes. Others 
envelop themselves in yards of crape, whose poi- 
sonous dyes injure the health and whose funereal 
aspect depresses tlie spirit. 

Conscientious women often excuse extravagance 
on the plea that it helps the laboring classes. 
Such a mistake arises from ignorance of the prin- 
ciples of political economy. "Luxurious expendi- 
ture is not good for trade — it has no beneficial 
effect upon the wage fund or the condition of the 
laborer. All unproductive consumption decreases 
national capital or lends to prevent its increase." 

Benevolent ladies are attempting to revise the 
lace-making industry in different sections of the 
( Hd World. An industry so laborious, so trying to 

the Bight, so dependent on the fluctuations of fash- 



250 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

ions, does not come under the head of philan- 
thropy. 

Diamonds, laces, and passementeries can neither 
feed nor warm, and in communities like our great 
cities, where every fifth man is a pauper, and in 
farming districts, where every one is in need of 
the higher values of life, the time for unproductive 
labor has not arrived. There is in the employ- 
ment of labor for the fabrication of a perishable 
ball-dress, which can be worn for a few evenings, 
or in the employment of the seamstress and the 
laundry-maid for delicate, elaborate, and costly 
clothing, the hind of temporary aid which Ruskin 
compares to that of setting people to building 
houses of snow. It is the waste of labor on things 
which perish. Ruskin says : " As long as there is 
cold and nakedness in the land around yon, so long 
there can be no question at all but that splendor of 
dress is a crime. In due time, when we have noth- 
ing better to set people to work at, it may be right 
to let them make lace and cut jewels ; but as long 
as there are any who have no blankets for their 
beds and no rags for their bodies, so long it is 
blanket-making and tailoring we must set people 
to work at — not lace." If society were constructed 



THE MORAL SIGNIFICANCE OF DRESS. 251 

on Christian principles, the " Song of the Shirt " 
could never have been written. 

Costliness of dress is not only contrary to the 
principles of political economy, but it is contrary 
to charity in the highest sense. Just as the mag- 
nificence of our churches shuts out the poor, so 
splendor of dress shuts the wearer from the pos- 
sibility of sympathetic entrance into the life of the 
destitute. A missionary dressed like a fashion- 
plate might enter the tenements of New York as 
an almsgiver, but not as a sympathizer and friend. 
The Salvation Army permits no woman who wears 
feathers, lace, and finery to be an officer or sit on 
the platform. Its influence among " the other 
half " would cease the moment the Army indulged 
in worldly pomp and vanity. 

The use of money is one of the problems of the 
day. It is the example of the affluent classes 
which tempts the poor to displays of dress and to 
foolish expenditure. Christian women ought to 
set an example of simplicity in dress which should 
have a wholesome effect on the middle classes and 
the wage-earner. When we think of the homes of 
poverty, the struggles for a pittance to keep soul 
and body together, the children who arc crying for 
bread, the ignoranl wailing to be taught, how piti- 



232 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

ful it seems to lavish time and money on our own 
personal adornment! 

Must we then dispense with everj- thing which 
" doth neither hide nor heat, seeing it doth adorn?" 
The exquisite care with which the Creator has 
clothed this world is a divine benediction on the 
beautiful. We owe a duty to ourselves, our 
neighbors, and our Creator not to make ourselves 
unseemly or ugh*. The difficulty is that, having 
lost simplicity and purity of heart, we entertain 
mistaken ideals of beauty. Another difficulty is 
that we are unable to separate between beauty for 
the sake of beauty, and beauty for the sake of 
vanity. The woman who is shopping for jewels 
and lace is in an entirely different mood from the 
woman who is buying a painting or statue for her 
home. In one the love of the beautiful is hope- 
lessly mixed with and debased by personal vanity ; 
in the other the love of beauty for beauty's sake is 
triumphant. When a woman ceases to deny, in 
dress, the ideal of the Creator, when she is so pure 
in heart that she recognizes the beautiful, when 
she arrays herself in beauty not to attract but to 
inspire, dress will be a refining and educating in- 
fluence, just as a beautiful picture or statue is an 
elevating and refining influence. 



THE MORAL SIGNIFICANCE OF DRESS. 253 

The highest life is the intellectual and spiritual. 
Magnificence in dress is certainly sensual. As the 
power of the intellect and the spirit grows, the 
heart is weaned from these displays and set on the 
things which are invisible. It is impossible to 
imagine Elizabeth Fry, Elizabeth Barrett Brown- 
ing, or Harriet Beecher Stowe decked in the ga}' 
trappings of fashion. Isaiah, Calvin, Knox, Fin- 
ney, all the mighty in spirit, have opposed them- 
selves to displays of dress. If we are not yet 
ready for the highest, which is the life of intellect 
and spirit, we must fight every impulse which 
tends towards a sensuous vanity in dress. Adorn- 
ment should be of the character which is refining 
and elegant. This is the work of art in the do- 
main of dress. Art is simple, practical, and ele- 
vating. It leads us away from the sensual and 
into the chaste and beautiful. In this new era 
which is dawning for woman she is called to put 
away the childish things of the senses, and to con- 
secrate her being to the things which remain when 
the fashions of this world have passed away. 



APPENDIX TO SECOND EDITION. 



THE BUSINESS SUIT. 

A few earnest students of the situation are labor- 
ing to solve the perplexing question, What shall 
be the business suit for women? 

By " business suit " is meant a costume adapted to 
woman, as man's prevailing style of dress is adapted 
to his need ; one which can be worn during the en- 
gagements and recreations of every-day life, in sun- 
shine and storm, allowing the greatest possible free- 
dom and comfort; one which will commend itself 
l»i 'cause of its fitness, not ignoring gentility. 

Tin- signs of the times indicate that this will likely 
In- a distinctively short costume, not simpty an ab- 
breviated frock. The accompanying cuts represent 
the suit in which Mrs. Bertha Morris Smith ap- 
peared before the National Convention of the Wo- 
man's Christian Temperance Union held at Denver. 
Mrs. Smith, the designer, claims that a short skirt, 



250 



TEE WELL- DRESS ED ]\OMAN. 




whose length reveals the 
shapeliness of the leg 
(properly clothed) is more 
artistic, hence less objec- 
tionable, than that which 
approaches the boot-top, 
bringing the feet into 
more prominent notice 
under circumstances not 
the most favorable. 

Such a costume should 
be made of serviceable 
material. The fabrics that 
drape beautifully because 
of their softness must give 
place to more substantial 
web, even for summer 
wear. 

The suit illustrated is 
made of navy-blue serge. 
The skirt is bell-shaped, 
but it can be cut with front, 
side, and back gores. A 
reversed box-plait in the 
front admits greater free- 
dom while sitting. An em- 



BUSINESS SUIT. 



257 



broidered arrow-head, ten 
or twelve inches below the 
waist, retains the plait in 
place. The skirt in length 
covers the garter line, en- 
tirely concealing a pair of 
Turkish trousers of medium 
width, made of the same 
material, and gathered be- 
low the knee by a rubber 
band. A pair of long gait- 
era button down the entire 
length at the side, and are 
strapped under the instep. 
The most desirable effect is 
produced when these gait- 
era also are made of the 
suit material. Those in the 
illustrations are of Jersey 
cloth. An under-waist of 
drilling or percoline extend- 
ing well over the hips, cut 
low in the neck and with 
large arm-sizes, can be suf- 
ficiently fitted to the form 
to support the ordinary 




258 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

bust, thus taking the place of the corset. The 
shirt may be sewed permanently to this waist at 
the waist line, or it may button on. The vent in 
the skirt is at the front plait. A second row of 
buttons on the waist, an inch or more below the 
waist line, supports the trousers. The vest and 
jacket are permanently attached to each other. The 
vest may be made with a silesia back of its own ; or 
small rubber straps an inch cr two in length, sewed at 
intervals along the under-arm seam, may button or 
hook the jacket to the vest. Either of these plans 
readily admits a lighter- weight vest, or a cooler waist 
for summer w r ear, made of silk, linen, or muslin, over 
which the jacket may be worn when needed. The 
vest may be finished with the high-neck band, as 
indicated, or the shawl collar, admitting equally 
well the laundered shirt-front and the more pliable 
"neckerchief." A soft felt hat completes the suit, 
which was pronounced most becoming to its wearer. 
The success of this costume requires harmony of 
color throughout, the covering for the legs forming 
an indispensable part. Light-weight cloth may be 
used, which is readily cut into the shapely gaiter ; 
this, supplemented by a short-sleeved, knee-length 
gauze union suit, with thin hose and low shoes, 
completes a summer outfit. The ankle-length union 



BUSINESS SUIT. 259 

suit can be worn with socks, thus avoiding support- 
ers, unless the tinner gaiter fabric requires that 
these be held in place under the trousers. For win- 
ter, heavier material, long-sleeved wool union suits, 
extending from the neck to the ankles, equestrian 
tights, and long woolen hose will afford abundant 
protection. The skirt and trousers may be lined 
if additional warmth is necessary. A short coat 
will suffice for midwinter out-door wear, while the 
"mackintosh," reaching the ankles, will give protec- 
tion in stormy weather. 

This suit made its appearance before the 
Women's Christian Temperance Union Conven- 
tion upon ;i day notably fraught with discom- 
fort by Mind, lain, snow, mud, and slush. Women 
intent upon a great reform wended their way 
to the church, managing with one hand an un- 
ruly umbrella, while the other held tenaciously to 
pamphlets and documents, at the same time clutch- 
ing vainly at habiliments that seemed mockingly 
out of place. After the noon conference in the 
interest of correct dress, which was of significant 
importance, Mrs. Smith was called to the rostrum 
during the afternoon session of the general conven- 
tion. She prefaced her remarks by referring to the 

possible difference of opinion regarding the length 



260 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

of the skirt. Immediately a delegate from Alabama, 
with full appreciation of the situation, ready wit, 
and sonorous voice, interrupted with the statement : 
" Madam President, I have seen at least seventy-five 
women, to-day, on the streets of Denver, hold- 
ing their skirts fully that high, without any of its 
evenness." A round of ringing applause showed the 
pertinence of the remark. 

In developing this business suit, pockets have 
not been forgotten. Two small ones are in the vest, 
two in the outside of the jacket, while a convenient 
breast-pocket can be added. One or two more 
liberal ones w T ill find place in the skirt. 

If such a suit finally prevail, the ingenuit}*- of 
manufacturers will soon overcome the difficulty 
which has been intimated of too great warmth. The 
long gaiters seem desirable because they afford 
covering without being hose, Avhich custom has 
established as "nether" garments; nor are they 
" pants," long ago pre-empted by men. This protec- 
tion of the legs need not prove more uncomfort- 
able in warm weather than the starched skirts and 
frocks which have been worn with so much forti- 
tude in periods of the past. Men endure cloth in 
summer and do not seem to suffer. 

The changed circumstances of women in these 



BUSINESS SUIT. 261 

days demand a costume adapted to various needs. 
While the flowing robe and floor-length frock 
will doubtless continue their supremacy in the 
drawing-room, common-sense declares that these 
are not fitted for the service of life. Woman has 
attempted to pass from the helpless, protected ex- 
istence which characterized the harem and days of 
chivalry into the new role of activit} r , philanthropy, 
and wage-earning independence, bearing upon her 
person the inconvenience and treachery of inap- 
propriate dress. This incongruity, perhaps more 
than any other one cause, has fixed upon her the 
charge of incompetency because of her sex. 

When standards of modesty are established in 
harmony with God's wonderful conception of the 
human body, the prejudice that now exists in the 
minds of a portion of womankind against such an 
innovation as liberated legs will vanish. 

What Civilization and the Gospel have wrought 
in the past for the veiled sisters of the Orient may 
be accomplished for the marvelously blest yet only 
half-released sisters of the Occident. The code of 
morals that conceals the face of the one is no falser 
in theory than arbitrary social demands which 
cripple the other with garments setting at naught 






262 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. 

the wisdom of the Creator in adapting the body to 
the needs of an immortal soul. 

It now remains for woman to harmonize her ideas 
regarding " fitting attire" with the privileges, pur- 
poses, and demands of her life. A vast brotherhood 
of sensible men stand ready to bid her God-speed 
Will she do it ? 



AM 



r**r> 



